The famed quilt is moving from Atlanta back to San Francisco, where it will take up permanent residence. Members of the NAMES Project Foundation announced the news on Wednesday along with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Rep. John Lewis (D-Georgia) and Rep. Barbara Lee (D-California). As part of the transition, the project said it has agreed to jointly gift care and stewardship of the quilt's archives to the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress, making this collection available through the world's largest public library. "The National AIDS Memorial and The Quilt, through their very existence, have had a tremendous impact in telling the story of the AIDS crisis and the AIDS movement, a story of social justice," said John Cunningham, executive director of the National AIDS Memorial.

Gone but not forgotten

The quilt was first created in 1987 at the height of the AIDS pandemic. A group of strangers came up with the idea in order to remember the names and lives of their loved ones they feared history would forget. The foundation describes the quilt as both a memorial and a storyteller. The archive has over 200,000 pieces that tell the story of those who lost their lives to the disease. "This is the culmination of decades of worRead More – Source