The Holiday Pride:
A Pittsburgh LGBT+ Community Museum
About Us
Our
Story
Begun as a digital museum, The Holiday Pride has moved beyond simply being a digital museum. We are an organization dedicated to practicing public history and archival skills, preserving LGBT+ history in all places it may reside, and presenting that history for all to know and share. For those who want a place for their memories to go or for those who wish to preserve their own history, we will help every step of the way!
Mission: Provide the city with access to its LGBT+ history as well as the tools, education, and guidance to practice, preserve, and present history.
Vision: Steward Pittsburgh’s LGBT+ history and serve the community with exhibits, archives, education, and advocacy for today and the future.
Meet the Team
Here are the folks that make The Holiday Pride run! If you want to reach out to any of us, please use the listed contacts. For general questions, please email: pittlgbtcommuseum@gmail.com.
Director
Al Preston
Al Preston is a Public Historian and Scholar of queer history. He completed his Bachelor of Arts in History at Lycoming College in Williamsport PA where he focused of queer medieval studies. He earned his Masters of Arts in Public History from Duquesne University. Academically, he has a passion for queer history across the globe and time. More recently, he’s found himself both fascinated by and in love with Pittsburgh’s local history. When he isn’t studying history, he’s spending time with his wife, usually playing games or writing.
Archivest
Silas Switzer
Silas Maxwell Switzer is a queer scholar, archivist, and poet currently pursuing a History major at the University of Pittsburgh. In 2023, he published his docupoetry chapbook, Nine Parts Water, One Part Bleach, chronicling the local history of the AIDS crisis in Pittsburgh. His academic passions are local queer history, empire and nation-state theory, and archival studies. Silas has an essay in the journal Queer Studies in Media and Popular Culture analyzing the queer worldbuilding in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. His poetry appears in Lunch
Ticket. When he isn’t buried in the archives or writing poetry, Silas enjoys contemplating the mysteries of American urban fauna, particularly the noble possum.
Social Media Manager
Jessie Ames
Jessie Ames is a Public Historian and material culture scholar with a focus on crocheted textiles. In 2021, she graduated with a degree in History from Penn State University, and in 2026, she earned her Master of Arts in Public History from Duquesne University. Her academic interests include a variety of heritage crafts and textile production in pre-
industrial America, women and gender-studies, and public history advocacy and
outreach with marginalized communities. Jessie has a special interest in unorthodox archival institutions and creative cultural preservation. If she’s not down a historical deep dive, you’ll find her learning new crochet patterns, painting, or spending time with
friends, family, and cats.
Archivist
Bryton Altenbach
Bryton Altenbach is a Public Historian and Archivist. He has a Bachelor of Arts degree in History and Literature and a Masters degree in Public History from Duquesne University. He has worked in numerous archives, including both of his alma maters. His study of focus in History is legal and political history. When he's not burried under archival material, he is often at home with his cat Belthane playing video games or Dungeons and Dragons.