The President’s Shoelaces, Goncharov, and Other Cultural Artifacts

Tumblr, the Internet Archive, and Queer Cultural Preservation

Abstract

Tumblr is an online community of over 496 million blogs which are interconnected into a social media platform. Long the home of those whose voices are pushed to the margins, Tumblr has had an active LGBTQ+ population almost since it's launch. This paper explores the impact of Tumblr on the culture of the Queer community and how the culture created there is or is not being preserved for the long-term. Formatted into a series of Tumblr posts and reblogs, the paper is embedded into the community that it studies and imagines a possible future for the community and culture found only on this site.