New Archive Acquisitions

New Archive Acquisitions

The Transgender Archive is proud to announce the following new acquisitions:

New Addition to the Archive’s Art Collection

New Additions to the Compton’s Cafeteria Riot Collection

Teaspoon from Compton’s Cafeteria: The Compton’s Cafeteria Riot occurred in August 1966 in the Tenderloin district of San Francisco. This incident was the first recorded transgender riot in United States history, preceding the more famous 1969 Stonewall Riots in New York City by three years	Vanguard Flyer: Many of those involved in the riot were members of Vanguard, the first known GLBT youth organization in the United States, which had been organized earlier that year with the help of ministers working with Glide Memorial Church, a center for progressive social activism in the Tenderloin for many years.

New Additions to the Japanese Trans (トランスジェンダー) Collection

Ranma 1/2 Comics:

Ranma 1/2 Anime Cell Art:

Ranma ½ (らんま½ ) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Rumiko Takahashi with an anime adaptation. The story revolves around a 16-year old boy named Ranma Saotome who was trained from early childhood in martial arts. As a result of an accident during a training journey, he is cursed to become a girl when splashed with cold water, but hot water will change him back into a boy. The anime is very popular and deals with gender, gender stereotyping and internal gender identity in a way that is entertaining and thereby accessible to a wide audience.

New Additions to the Archive’s Photograph Collection

Original 1910 Photograph: Two Female-to-Males	Original 1910 Photograph: Six Female-to-Males
Original 1968 Movie Promo: "The Queen"	Original 1968 Movie Promo: "The Queen"
Original 1955 Photo: John Cabell "Bunny" Breckinridge (8/6/1903 – 11/5/1996) was an American actor, best known for his role as "The Ruler" in Ed Wood’s film Plan 9 from Outer Space, his only film appearance. Breckinridge attempted to undergo sex reassignment surgery at least twice.

New Additions to the Archive’s Book Collection

1st Edition, 1735 - "Par L’Abbe De Choisy": François Timoléon, abbé de Choisy (October 2, 1644 – October 2, 1724) was a French author whose mother dressed him like a girl until he was eighteen, and, after appearing for a short time in man’s costume, he resumed woman’s dress on the advice of Madame de La Fayette.	Signed, 1st Edition, 1990 - "One-Eyed Charley The California Whip": Charley Darkey Parkhurst, often Parkurst, (1812 – 1879) was an American stagecoach driver and early California settler; a fierce driver, he was never afraid to use his gun. Parkhurst (FTM) lived as a man for most of his life, and consequently may have been the first biological woman to vote in California.
1st Edition, 1969 - "Psychodynamics of Change of Sex Through Surgery"	1998 - "I, Pear Hart": Pearl (Taylor) Hart (c. 1871 – after 1928) was a Canadian-born outlaw of the American Old West. Performing one of the last recorded stagecoach robberies in the United States, her crime gained notoriety primarily due to the fact that she dressed like a man.
1st Edition, 1980 - "Herculine Barbin": Herculine Barbin (1838-1868) was a French intersex person who was treated as a female at birth but was later redesignated a male after an affair and physical examination.	1st Edition, 1958 - "Homosexuality, Transvestism and Change of Sex": An early professional book dealing with the subjects listed in the title of the book.
1st Edition, 1962 - "Imji Getsul: An English Buddhist in a Tibetan Monastery": Rare Book by Michael Dillon (May 1, 1915 – May 15, 1962), the first FTM to receive phalloplasty. He latter became the first post-surgical FTM Buddhist monk.	1st Edition, 1962 - "Life of Milarepa: Tibet’s Great Yogi": Rare Book by Michael Dillon (May 1, 1915 – May 15, 1962), the first FTM to receive phalloplasty. He latter became the first post-surgical FTM Buddhist monk.
1st Edition, 1973 English Version of the 1620 Document - "Hic Mulier": Hic Mulier is the name of a pamphlet published in 1620 in England that condemned transvestitism. Women wearing men’s apparel was becoming increasingly common in that period, causing concern to the pamphleteer and other social conservatives. The pamphlet argued that transvestitism was an affront to nature, The Bible, the Great chain of being, and society.	1st Edition, 1970 - "The Female Eunuch": The book is a feminist analysis, written with a mixture of polemic and scholarly research. It was a key text of the feminist movement in the 1970s. In sections titled Soul, Love and Hate the author examines historical definitions of women’s perception of self and uses a premise of imposed limitations to critique modern consumer societies, female “normality” and masculine shaping of stereotypes.

New Additions to the Magazine and Newspaper Collection

June 1973 - "The Gay Crusader": Coverage of the Repeal of and anti-trans ordinance in Chicago.	1996 - "Who’s Who & Resource Guide to the Transgender Community"
March 1953 - "Dare Magazine": Article called, "Male or Female? Psudohermaphrodites: Can They Choose Their Sex? Can They Bear Children?"

New TG Archive Acquisition: Autographed 1st Ed, Canary Conn Biography

The Transgender Archive located in Houston, Texas has added this autographed, first edition of Canary: The Story of a Transsexual to it’s rare book collection. In the 1970s, Canary Conn appeared regularly on the syndicated Merv Griffin Television Show and often on Tom Snyder’s NBC Tomorrow show. Before she became Canary Conn, Canary was Danny O’Connor. Her autobiography, Canary (1974) was a best seller. It tells the story of an aspiring young singer-songwriter, who first lived as a young man before living as a woman.

1st Ed With Jacket

Competing against 10,000 others in a nationwide talent contest in the late 1960s, Danny won first prize, was named “Best Teenage Male Vocalist in America”, and landed a recording contract with Capitol Records in the late 1960s. Judges included Dick Clark, Quincy Jones, and Mason Williams. 

Realizing that she was miserable as a man, Danny separated from her wife and decided to undergo the first stage of a sex-change operation. She had the procedure performed in Tijuana, Mexico. Two years later, Canary could afford the second-stage procedure. However, living as both male and female and, at the same time, as neither, coupled with working many jobs to save money, and being alone nearly led her to commit suicide.

Inscription & Autograph 

The book is inscribed, “Bob, enjoyed meeting & talking with you yesterday. You seemed interested & I thought I’d  give you a copy of my first book to help answer some of the questions. Best Wishes Canary (The Bird) 9/20/76″  This rare edition is now available for review in the Transgender Archive located at the TFA Transgender Center in Houston, Texas.

New TG Archive Acquisition: 1928 1st Edition Havelock Ellis Book, Eonism and Other Studies

Evolution of Transgender Linguistics: When “Sexual-Inversion” became “Eonism”

Studies in th Psychology of Sex by Havlock Ellis: Eonism and Other Studies  

The Transgender Foundation of Americ has acquired a first edition copy of Havelock Ellis’ “Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume VII Eonism and Other Supplementary Studies”. This volume is significant to both the transgender lexicon and the development of the understanding of transgender expression.

Magnus Hirschfeld and Havelock Ellis were the first to really look at transgenders. Both initially concluded the phenomenon of transgender behavior was grounded in sexuality. It is easy t understand why this happened: There are many crossdressers who dress for sexual reasons; and, Freudian psychology was the gold standard of the day for psychological professionals. In 1910, Hirschfel published, The Transvestites: An Investigation of th Erotic Desire to Cross Dress and in 1913, Ellis published a paper in which he looked into the issue of those with a ’sexo-aesthetic inversion’.

In this book, Ellis states that his term, ’sexo-aesthetic inversion’ was misleading and should not be used. Through this book, Ellis entered a new term into the transgender lexicon: ‘Eonism’, after the French transwoman, Chevalier d’Eon.

Ellis and Hirschfeld’s work was groundbreaking in that it mainly interested in simply gathering information about transgender people instead of trying to design a cure. Freud and his followers, on the other hand, felt that transgender behavior was a pathology and that it likely stemmed from small boys seeing their mother’s genitalia which created a deep anxiety about the notion of losing his own penis.

Emil Gutheil used the work of Ellis and Hirschfeld to bring the psychological world out of the dark ages of Freudian views of gender normative behavior and into an enlightened age where there was room for a view of transgenders that was not completely driven by the assumption that transgenders are essentially the same in that they are all motivated through fetishistic drive.

This is an incredibly important work in the history of the modern transgender theory. Without the work of Ellis, and the complementary work of Hirschfeld, Freudian views of transgender behavior would have been the only voice driving transgender care when Harry Benjamin decided to begin his historic work with the transgender community.

New TG Archive Acquisition: 1800s TG Statuary

The Transgender Foundation of America recently acquired an antique bust of a transgendered woman estimated to be approximately 150 years old. The base of this bust has a plaque that reads, “TRAVESTI”. The term, “travesti” was apparently coined in 1592 French society to describe transgenders.

Cristan Williams, the Director of the Transgender Foundation of America (TFA) has this to say about the above piece of transgender history:

“This historical piece is a pewter/brass overlay bust of a Victorian transwoman. I am literally looking the meaning of a word brought to life in the form of art. This is extremely interesting to me. This term, “travesti” is the root for the 1674 French word, “TRAVESTY”, meaning “dressed so as to be made ridiculous, parodied, burlesqued”. I think one could argue that this says a lot about the view French society held for transgender people. 

In some ways, I am tempted to draw the conclusion that this bust was used to try to cross the cultural canyon of French understanding. The “travesti” pictured here - while, admittedly burlesque in appearance due to her exposed breasts - is the epitome of what is truly transsexual. In other words, this bust is saying that while this individual is biologically male, this person is also, in fact, fully female - even going so far as to endow this figure with real breasts. In this way, I am tempted to argue that this is an example of the evolution of language brought to life in art. On the other hand, this could be something like an antique memento from an actual burlesque which brings to life the psychosexual fantasy angle of cross-sexing and/or gender-blurring among those who desire humans they can project their fantasy upon, which is, inevitably… transgender people. Was this a sex object or was it a teaching tool? Either way, it is very significant to transgender history. It is either an antique visage of sexual conflation or it is a representation of the evolution of transgender linguistics and both are powerful forces which shaped the destiny of transgenders for a long time now.”

The antique bust is now on display at the Transgender Archive located in Houston, Texas.

New TG Archive Acquisition: 1828 TG Newspaper

The Philadelphian was a religious newspaper established in 1825. The Transgender Foundation of America entered this June 13, 1828 newspaper into it’s archive because it records the discover and subsequent interrogation of a female-to-male transgender.

“The Female Teamster” - a girl in men’s attire was taken from the Bowery Theatre, New York - on her examination, it appeared she had been driven from home by her step-father’s cruelty and changed her dress to make a better life - lived out in the capacity of a servant boy, clerk, followed boating on the canal, driving team, etc - she states that situated as she is, without friends, she prefers her present dress as she is far more healthy than she formerly was and is enabled the better to gain her livelihood.

New TG Archive Acquisition: 4 TG Books

• “Transparent: Love, Family, and Living the T with Transgender Teenagers” by Cris Beam, 2007

When Cris Beam first moved to Los Angeles, she thought she might put in just a few hours volunteering at a school for transgender kids while she got settled. Instead she found herself drawn deeply into the pained and powerful group of transgirls she discovered. In Transparent she intro duces four of them—Christina, Domineque, Foxxjazell, and Ariel—and shows us their world, a dizzying mix of familiar teenage cliques and crushes with far less familiar challenges like how to morph your body on a few dollars a day. Funny, heartbreaking, defiant, and sometimes defeated, the girls form a singular community. But they struggle valiantly to resolve the gap between the way they feel inside and the way the world sees them—a struggle we can all identify with. Beam’s careful reporting, sensitive writing, and intimate relationship with her characters place Transparent in the ranks of the best narrative nonfiction.

New TG Archive Acquisition: 12 TG Books

The TG Archive has acquired 12 new additions to it’s reference library. They are:

• “Orlando” by Virginia Woolf. Inscribed on inside by hand: “Susan - Sweet, gentle woman - You’ve touched me. Happy Birthday. Love, Barbara 1977“

Virginia Woolf described “Orlando” as “an escapade, half-laughing, half-serious; with great splashes of exaggeration, ” but many think Woolf’s escapade is one of the most wickedly imaginative and sharply observed considerations of androgyny that this century will see.

Orlando is, in fact, a character liberated from the restraints of time and sex. Born in the Elizabethan Age to wealth and position, he is a young male aristocrat at the beginning of the story - and a modern woman four centuries later. The hero-heroine sees monarchs come and go, hobnobs with great literary figures, and slips in and out of each new fashion. Woolf presents a brilliant pageant of history, society, and literature as well as subtle appreciation of the interplay between endings and beginnings, past and present, male and female.

• “A Girl Could Stand Up” by Leslie Marshall, 2003

Surprising and wise, A Girl Could Stand Up bristles with charm and introduces one of literature’s most unforgettable young heroines. On an outing to celebrate Elray’s sixth birthday, her parents are killed in a freak accident. The day of their funeral, a pair of woefully unprepared uncles is sent in to care for her: Uncle Harwood, a macho, hard-drinking photographer who’s always on assignment, and Ajax, a thirty-something cross-dressing uncle who prefers to present himself as an “aunt.” But the beating heart of this novel is the love story that develops between Elray and her friend Raoul. Their secret adventures in their search for invincibility take them from the crypts of the Washington Cathedral to a life-threatening swim in the waters of the Potomac. Marshall has created a big-hearted world that is hers alone. Reminiscent of John Irving’s Hotel New Hampshire, A Girl Could Stand Up is a testament to a new idea of family in its imperfect but shining state.

• “Colonel Barker’s Monstrous Regiment: A Tale of Female Husbandry” by Rose Collis, 2002

In an England devastated by the terrible losses of World War I, Colonel Victor Barker was a rare man indeed. Dashing, well-respected, with impeccable manners, he was a model gentleman. His wife was proud of his good breeding and fine looks, and his young son worshipped him as a war hero. But beneath the army uniform Barker hid an astounding secret. In 1929, following a sensational trial, the good colonel was sentenced to nine months’ imprisonment. For Colonel Barker was, in fact, a woman. Her real name was Valerie Lilias Arkell-Smith, the most infamous “man-woman” of them all.

• “The Changeling: A Novel of the Pirate Anne Bonny” by Alison MacLeod, 1996

The story is a common one for late seventeenth-century Ireland; A servant girl names Sally is seduced by her master, Mr. Manley, and in nine months dies giving birth to her illegitimate daughter, Anne. But Anne’s destiny is anything but common - she grows up to become Anne Bonny, the infamous cross-dressing pirate.

• “Dangerous Games: The True Story of a Convicted Murderer on Death Row who Changed  His Sex and Won her Freedom” by Robert Bentley, 1993

The true story of the Houstonian, Leslie Douglas Ashley/Leslie Elaine Perez recounts the life of the Death Row inmate who received a last-minute reprieve and went on to have a sex change operation.

• “Cock & Bull” by Will Self, 1994

After her marriage to Dan, an alcoholic, Carol discovers she is growing a male organ, and she uses it to change her previously passive role in life, while Bull, a young man, develops female genitals and asks his doctor about them.

• “Transsexualism and Sex Reassignment” by William A. W. Walters, Michael W. Ross, 1986

Based on ten years of experience with over 400 transsexuals at a major teaching hospital in Melbourne, this book describes factors determining gender identity and explains how and why transsexualism may develop. The contributors examine the experience from every angle, discussing its medical, ethical, legal, social, and personal aspects, providing a benchmark in the the understanding and management of the transsexual experience

• “Women in Battle” by John Laffin, 1967

Nancy Wake, Hannah Snell, Lucy Brewer, Dorothy Lawrence, Maquis, King Gezo, Molly Pitcher, Egba, Dahomey, Joan of Arc, Deborah Sampson, Viet Cong Saragossa, Croix de Guerre, Violette Szabo, she-soldiers, guerrillas, Creil, Mary Anne Talbot, Serbs

 

• “The Pharaohs of Ancient Egypt” by Elizabeth Payne, 1981

Long ago, a great civilization thrived along the banks of the Nile River. Ruled by awesome god-kings called Pharaohs, Egypt was a land of bustling cities, golden palaces, and huge stone monuments. Its people were fun-loving, its nobles elegant, and its gods the most powerful in the world. This astonishing civilization endured for more than 3,000 years before it gradually vanished from the face of the earth, its cities crumbling to dust. Eventually, the meanings of its writings were lost, and the story of Egypt’s people, its Pharaohs and it’s golden days were forgotten. Over the last two centuries, archaeologists’ excavations in the Nile Valley have slowly
brought to light the story of this once mighty civilization. Beginning with the Rosetta Stone, author Elizabeth Payne examines the discoveries that have helped unlock the incredible secrets of Egypt’s first kings, including Akhetaton.

• “Que Linda la Brisa” by James Drake, Jimmy Santiago Baca, Benjamin Alire Saenz and Pamela Auchincloss Gallery, 2001

Contains three poetic statements that create an insight into the lives of people who bear witness to the exclusionary nature of society’s most basic assumptions about the nature of gender and desire: men in women’s bodies, outcasts, who make their living as prostitutes.

 

• “Handsome Heroines: Women as Men in Folklore” by Shahrukh Husain, 1996

Gathers twelve folktales featuring women who dress and conduct themselves as men for the purpose of love, revenge, money, power, and patriotism.

 

 

• “Horsexe: Essay on Transsexuality” by Catherine Millot, 1990

A Lacanian psychoanalyst undertakes a study of transsexual desire, with chapters on the female drive in psychosis, “SheMales”, the sex of angels, the Eastern European Skoptzy sect of castrati, sex-change operations, and more.

New TG Archive Acquisition: 1968 TG French Newspaper

The TG Archive has acquired an original 1968 Persian newspaper titled, “Noir Et Blanc” (Black And White) in which the case for “you are your chromosomes” is made. While this line of reasoning has been thoroughly discredited as being the defacto means by which sex is deduced, this article describes the then cutting-edge technology of chromosomal testing. This article covers the use of chromosomal testing in the Olympics as being the magic bullet fo discerning the “true” sex of an individual - a practice given up by the Olympic Committee.

Tags: Archive Committee, Chromosome Test, Grenoble, Maria Patino, Noir Et Blanc, Olympics, Sex Testing
Filed under Education, TG Archive |

October 24th, 2008

Tags: Album, Billy Tipton, History, jazzArchive, LP, Record
Filed under Education, TG Archive |

October 21st, 2008

Tags: Acquisition, Books, History, Institut für Sexualwissenschaft, Magnus Hirschfeld, Transgender Archive
Filed under Education, TG Archive |