LGBTQ+ archive

Pride exhibition 17th June to 15th July 2022: a collaborative project between The Gibson Library and Saffron Walden County High School LGBTQIA+ Allies

To mark the Allies’ Pride Day (23rd June 2022) a group of students visited The Gibson Library and investigated a range of material from its collection of over 40,000 volumes to uncover LGBTQIA+ lives in the past.

The resulting exhibition in two glass cases and on display boards explained, in the students’ own words,  LGBTQIA+ identities, and presented the Allies’ responses to the historic works from the Library which were displayed alongside them. These uncovered several local connections to LGBTQIA+ lives:

• Victorian Socialist and gay campaigner Edward Carpenter who for a time lived in Cambridge
• Editor and political activist Harriet Shaw Weaver, a resident of Saffron Walden
• Artist Henry Scott Tuke, cousin of Elizabeth Tuke Gibson, whose portraits of Elizabeth and her husband George Stacey Gibson hang in the Gibson Library Reading Room
• Eighteenth-century French cross-dresser, the Chevalier D’Eon, whose life was recorded in the Gentleman’s Magazine, of which the Library holds a full run.

Elers Way in Thaxted is named after Peter Elers, former vicar of Thaxted and one of the first openly gay vicars in the Church of England, who went on to become president of the Gay Christian Movement.

In 1976, Elers blessed a lesbian “marriage” on the understanding that “if the church blessed battleships and budgerigars, it ought to find it in its heart to bless men and women in love.”

This female common pheasant had grown partial male plumage. The wings and back of this bird show the usual female plumage but the iridescent dark blue feathers on the neck and head, and the bronze colour of the feathers on the front are much closer to male plumage.

The label reads: “A PARTIAL ASSUMPTION OF MALE PLUMAGE BY FEMALES WHICH HAVE CEASED TO BREED IS NOT UNCOMMON”. Scientific studies from as early as 1827 link the change in plumage to being unable to breed. This can happen with natural ageing, or earlier in life if the reproductive organs do not develop in the usual way. Mature females can show changes in the reproductive organs several years before the changes in plumage appear.

A study in 1995 showed that different aspects of ‘male’ appearance in birds are controlled by either oestrogen or testosterone. In pheasants, oestrogen in the body stops male plumage developing, making the bird look like a female. If oestrogen levels fall for some reason, the feathers grow in a more ‘male’ way, as in this bird. Other ‘male’ traits, like the red wattles of skin on the head and sharp claw-like spurs on the feet don’t appear, as they need testosterone to develop fully, resulting in an ‘intergender’ appearance. In mammals, testosterone levels are the main control on developing a ‘male’ appearance.

SAFWM : NB 252C

• Yarrell, W (1827) https://www.jstor.org/stable/107876
• Owens, I. and Short, R. (1995) https://doi.org/10.1016/S0169-5347(00)88967-3

James VI & I (1566-1625) became King of Scotland in 1567, at the meagre age of thirteen months old. In 1663, after the death of Queen Elizabeth I, James became ruler of England and Ireland also.

Several historians have debated the precise nature of James VI & I’s sexuality.  He had a family with his wife Anne of Denmark but also had an intense relationship with George Villers, who was appointed Duke of Buckingham in 1623 by James himself.

In Saffron Walden Museum’s collection, they hold a few replica seals and coins from the reign of King James I. Below is one seal depicting James VI & I from the sixteenth century. Seals, such as the one seen here, were used to authenticate important documents by making impressions upon the desired surface.

Saffron Walden Museum has an extensive Natural Science collection with many species that reproduce in alternative ways. These animals reproducing in such ways pose interesting examples of operating outside of heteronormative ways of reproduction, i.e. male and female. For instance, some animals such as snails, discussed below, are intersex; the most recent update to the acronym LGBTQ+ consisted of adding IA, I denoting intersex, and A standing for asexual. Thus, these objects enable us to discuss lesser known subject formations often occluded within the LGBTQIA+ community.

Parthenogenesis refers to a method of asexual reproduction, common amongst a variety of animal species. Specific species of snakes can reproduce through parthenogenesis, even when male snakes are available. Saffron Walden has several python snake skins within their collections. Depicted below is the skin of a southern African rock python, Python sebae natalensis, from Mbala in Zambia. While parthenogenesis has not been observed in this specific species, the museum houses numerous snake skins.

It is now inappropriate to refer to a human with discrepancies between their external genitalia and internal reproductive organs as a hermaphrodite. This term is derogatory as it insinuates a person can be born with both male and female genitalia, a physiology impossibility. The word hermaphrodite in fact stems from Greek mythology. The term is still used somewhat in biological studies though.

Instead of referring to snails as hermaphrodites, as they can mate with any member of their species, we must instead describe them as intersex. If we use intersex instead within our catalgouing of such objects, it becomes an educational opportunity to the wider public that the term hermaphrodite is no longer appropriate to describe a living thing with discrepancies between their external or internal reproductive organs.

The museum has a variety of intersex animal specimens: snails, frogs, and parrot fish for example. In the image above, are two shells of ramshorn snails mounted upon a piece of card. The Latin name is Planorbis planorbis now. These are nineteenth century specimens collected in the grounds of Audley End House near Saffron Walden in Essex. The image below is a plaster model of the common frog, Rana temporaria, produced by taxidermy company Edward Gerrard and Sons in London and purchased in 1951. Frogs can change sex if they are exposed to the chemical atrazine. While not depicted here, the museum also has the head of a parrot fish, a species of fish which can change sex.

Saffron Walden Museum is to be donated an artwork by Essex based artist George Morl.

ATM Avatar Series by Morl is a series of avatars based upon reimagining the queer network’s digitisation in the 1990’s in ways that can facilitate space for queer and autistic commune and connection. These avatars were crafted through conversations with other autistics and autistics from the LGBTQ+ community in Essex.

Drawing upon a diverse set of sources from Anglo Saxon burial cultures and Roman deities, to the history of Chelmsford’s Gay Libration Front in 1972, Morl created ‘Orange Orient Gatekeeper Deity’ (2021), ‘Orange Orient Warrior Deity’ (2021), 'hippoCAMPus-nd-them Deity' (2021).

 
George Morl, Orange Orient Warrior Deity, 2021

Sometimes it’s problematic translating objects or practices from other cultures into our own time and culture. In Saffron Walden Museum, there are mummified remains from Deir el-Bahri, Thebes, which were originally identified from X-rays to have been a small boy aged around 7 years.

The remains, however, have since been gender queried by Dr Christina Riggs. The shroud the remains are wrapped in are clearly female with false breasts. This may suggest either that they had quite different ideas about the identity of children, gender or sexuality or simply that they used a shroud originally intended for a female. We will probably never know.

The mummy was originally thought to date to the Ptolemaic period, between 332-30 BC, but has subsequently been dated later, to the Roman period 200-250AD. Collected by Frederick Henniker (1793 - 1825) of Newton Hall, Essex. The accession register entry identifies the remains as the son of Ptolemy Lagus.

Gender expression has changed its rules over and over again throughout the centuries. A historical perspective highlights the origin of such rules as a social construct based upon binary thinking. Things that are perceived as strongly related to womanhood today, such as make up, wigs, lace and heels, were unisex or even signifiers of strong masculinity in the past.

In many 17th-19th century portraits infant or young boys are shown wearing dresses.  This mounted 19th century sepia photograph of Queen Victoria with two of her young grand-children is a good example from Saffron Walden Museums’ collection.  For instance, the boy on the left hand side of the picture wears the same dress as the girl on the left. This picture was taken at the Alexander Bassano Studios in Old Bond Street, London in 1886.

Portrait of a Young Man, from Southend Museums’ collection dates to around 1650. The central figure dons long curly hair, make-up and luxurious clothing.

What these two examples present is how attitudes towards gender were dramatically different in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. In the 20th century, gender expression became much more rigid, and the binary was extremely pervasive throughout society. Now things have changed however. With terms like ‘non-binary’ allowing people to legally express their disidentification with the binary construct. 

Percy John Smith (1882-1948) was an unauthorized war artist that managed to create prints during the First World War (1914-1918). He was prosecuted multiple times for this, as only art authorized by the military propaganda machine was allowed at the time.

This print shows a military official taking a bath. While bathing, another man is watching him through a tiny window. The link between homosexual practices and gender-segregated spaces and groups such as the military has been widely documented. Sailors even became a symbol of homosexuality. This print might be a hint of such aspects of military life. Likewise, this image is a document of voyeuristic desire: a desire that was forced into the shadows under societal repression in the early 20th century. 

In 2018, period black comedy film The Favorite, directed by Yorgos Lanthimos, became a great success. The film follows Queen Anne who reigned over England, Scotland and Ireland from 1702 to 1714.

Numerous historians have explored an exchange of letters amongst Queen Anne and Duchess of Marlborough Sarah Churchill, through these letters many have debated that a lesbain love affair ensued between them. It is the potential of this romantic relationship that informed the hit film The Favorite.

In Southend Museums’ collection are a number of coins dating to the early eighteenth century that feature the profile of Queen Anne, now a historical lesbian icon.

Southend Museums’ is home to a vast collection of fashion items. Since 1970, they have been collecting 20th century fashion as part of its social history collection. In 2009, private collector Mavis Plume donated over 500 pieces to the museum. Within their collection are a number of male swimwear slips, thongs and loincloths.

Such forms of swimwear appeared in the 1920’s and were more commonly associated with Beefcake magazines such as the later Physique Pictorial. These magazines often depicted muscular men wearing solely thongs like the ones seen here. However, due to conservative societal attitudes, most explicit material was censored. The items of swimwear seen here, thus speak to an underground queer photographic circuit that operated behind the facade of bodybuilding magazines.

The contemporary version of the Speedo was designed by Australian born and raised Peter Travis in the 1960’s. Travis was also a gay man. The speedo itself, often colloqually referred to a “buddgie smugglers”, became a strong gay symbol not for its practical benefits of more dynamic movement, but for its erotic qualities.

1920s men's swimming briefs, Southend Museums Service.

1920s men's swimming thong front, Southend Museums Service.

Men's swimming trunks by Speedo, Southend Museums Service.

Within Southend Museums’ collection are two occasion cards featuring the word ‘gay’. These are significant as both use the word in very different ways which begin to tell us about the historical change in the meaning behind it. Before terms like queer were reclaimed in the late 1980’s, ‘gay’ was an early and prominet term used to describe homosexaul relationships.

The first is a Christmas card dating to around 1912, and published in London by E.A. Schwerdtfeger and Co. An older gentleman dressed as Santa Claus peers through large wooden doors, with a sack of presents in hand. Whilst directly above their head is the writing: ‘May your Christmas be merry and gay, take your choice’. This card uses the word gay in its original meaning, as to be happy, or ‘light-hearted and carefree’.

Contrastingly, the second card was designed by Donal McGill, considered the most prominent cartoonist of the classic seaside postcard, usually characterised by sexist or misogynist remarks. The illustration is of a larger man behind a counter talking to an effimitised man holding a pocket watch. Underneath this picture, McGill has written: ‘I can't be your Valentine For me you're much too gay, And at parties and balls, You, Your Time pass away, You cannot deny it's the truth that I speak, For you know that you go to 'three balls every week!’.

McGill was no stranger to poking fun at gay men. One of his famous designs shows a gardener and a woman with a gay couple in the background and reads ‘Yes miss, most of the flowers have done well this year, but I’ve had a lot of trouble with the pansies’. Both of these cards by McGill date much later than the Christmas card, and thus indicate how ‘gay’ increasingly became associated with homosexaul relationships later in the 20th century, as well as often being used in derogatory ways. 

The Kursaal first opened in 1901 as one of the world's first amusement parks. Located along Southend-on-Sea’s seafront are the remnants of this amusement park. This building is distinguished by the raised dome at the front. Throughout the years, the Kursaal has been used in various forms, from greyhound racing to hosting the rock band AC/DC. Above are some illustrations of the building from Southend Museums’ collection, these exemplify the significance of the building to Southend and how the facade became a special edition postage stamp.

Forgotten Black Essex: Princess Dinubolu (2018), Southend, Essex, Photo: Amaal Said

Forgotten Black Essex: Princess Dinubolu (2018), Southend, Essex, Photo: Amaal Said

In 1908, a young black woman named Princess Dinubolu competed in a beauty pageant at the Kursaal. Local artist Elsa James uncovered this piece of history and has made a film exploring how Princess Dinubolu’s arrival in the UK sparked a media frenzy then. Above are stills of James dressed as Princess Dinubolu from her film Forgotten Black Essex: Princess Dinubolu (2018). Forgotten Black Essex is also currently on display at the Beecroft Gallery for ‘The Essex Feminist Forum’ exhibition. In the summer of 2022, James presented a major solo exhibition at Focal Point Gallery titled ‘Othered in a region that has been historically Othered’.

We could also think queerly about this building, considering its multiple uses and the array of histories it embodies. To think about this building's history and its objects in such a way allows us to build alternative stories from LGBTQ+ and ethnic minority perspectives, enabling us to write these vital stories amongst an archive of scarcity. 

Keddies had been a regular fixture of Southend-on-Sea’s high-street since 1892, until it closed down in 1996. Now, where the department store used to stand is a combination of commercial stores: HMV, Clinton Cards, Sports Direct and Super Drug. This is a Christmas themed plastic shopping bag from Keddies, featuring somewhat orientalist iconography. Below is a photograph within Southend Museums’ collection of the High Street at Christmas in the 1970’s with the Keddies storefront depicted.

The bag is significant as Keddies was at the center of a media row during the years of Section 28 and the AIDS crisis. The store attracted attention after supposedly firing a Santa impersonator for them being gay, as uncovered by researcher Elliot Gibbons' exploration of Southend's LGBTQ+ history. This was given the headline ‘Gay Santa Gets Sack’ in the Sun newspaper.

The person supposedly fired was a local actor named Danny Ford. In a later interview held at Essex’s only LGBTQ+ venue the Cliff Pub, Ford clarifies that he was not fired but chose to leave after hearing a newspaper was going to misreport he had AIDS. During the AIDS crisis, fears around the epidemic were taken out on the LGBTQ+ population, and often the public assumed that if you were gay you also had AIDS. This was due to tabloids often incorrectly referring to the virus as a “gay plague”.

In the original article within the Sun, the reporter writes that Ford was fired due to the idea that in his role as a Santa impersonator within Keddies’ grotto, he would be kissing children. Due to him being gay, the reporter misreports that AIDS could be transmitted through kissing and that was the justification for him being fired. This is a small part of the vast amount of misinformation demonizing homosexaulity in the 1980’s.

Edward Lear ‘Thebes, Egypt’ watercolour, Southend Museums Service.

Edward Lear (1812 - 1888) was a British poet and artist, mostly known for his limericks, but he was also praised for his paintings and illustrations. Edward Lear’s sexuality has been the subject of much academic speculation. While his diaries only mention women, the writings of his contemporaries talk about his ‘undeniable homosexuality’. The most interesting aspect is Lear’s own disinterest with the rumours.

Nonetheless Lear’s poem became for many a symbol of queerness and many have read them through a queer lens. The Owl and the Pussycat was written for the children of a dear friend who was a gay man in a society that imposed heterosexual marriage. The two characters, traditionally interpreted as representing a homosexual pairing, could alternatively represent the incompatible husband-wife couple.

Herbarium sheet of Viola Canina (Heath Dog Violet) from Shoebury collected by Christopher Parsons in 1864, Southend Museums Service.

Both violets the flower and violet the colour became a symbol of lesbianism and female bisexuality in the early 1900s.

The symbolism derives from a poem by Sappho, a 7th century female Greek lyric poet who often wrote about her desire and love for women. Most of her work is fragmentary and we do not have a clear history of her life, but there is understandable speculation about her sexuality. The word 'lesbian' is derived from the name of the island Sappho resided on for most of her life, the island of Lesbos.

Source: Barnard, M. (1958) Sappho: A New Translation. University of California Press

A brass sestertius of Hadrian, 117 AD to 138 AD, Southend Museums Service.

The Roman Emperor Hadrian is frequently referenced as having publicly had a male consort, Antinous, who accompanied him on his travels around the empire. It was not uncommon for his predecessors to have taken gay lovers alongside a female spouse, however Hadrian was unique in making his love "official" in a way that no other emperor before him had ever done.

When Antinous drowned in mysterious circumstances in the River Nile, Hadrian was so distraught that he chose to commemorate the young Greek by making him a divinity, founded a cult in his name and erected monuments in his honour. There are also memorials to Hadrian’s dead lover at the emperor’s villa in Tivoli.

In both Saffron Walden Museum and Southend Museums’ collections are a number of coins dating to the Hadrianic period. The image above is one of these Roman coins depicting Hadrian.