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Archival description
United States of America History
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Photograph album of queer gender expression.

  • SCA440-GA514
  • Fonds
  • 1912

One photograph album capturing moments of gender expression in the early 20th Century. The album contains family and school photographs, and the images of gender expression centre around a group of students on what appears to be a school trip in Pennsylvania. People who appear to be assigned female at birth are shown wearing typical male clothing of the time, or dressed en homme, and people who appear to be assigned male at birth are shown wearing typical female clothing of the time, or dressed en femme. Beginning in the 1840s laws were passed across the United States criminalizing the act of appearing in public “in a dress not belonging to his or her sex" and the activities of this group of students would have still been illegal at this time. It is unclear if the people in the images are cross-dressing as a form of gender expression, entertainment or sexual fetish, or if they are transgender or gender non-conforming.

Photograph collection.

  • SCA83-GA53
  • Collection
  • [186-?]-[19--?]

Collection consists of 169 19th century American photographs. Included are 115 carte-de-visites, 40 cabinet portraits, 2 albums, 11 miscellaneous photographs and 1 envelope of miscellaneous business and greeting cards.

Most are albumen type photographs depicting various people including infants, children, and adults. The photographs come from various studios across the United States though the majority come from studios in New York, Vermont, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Illinois. The photographs, since rehoused, were originally housed in two albums decorated with an intricate relief on the cover and a metal clasp lock.