Browse Exhibits (12 total)

"Chosen Girl," 2003, by Faith S. Holsaert

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A short story set in 1950s Greenwich Village about the love between two women--one white, one black--as observed by the white woman's daughter. Reprinted with the permission of Faith S. Holsaert. Copyright (c) 2003 by Faith S. Holsaert. Published originally on OutHistory in 2011.

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Alice Mitchell Murders Freda Ward in Memphis, 1892

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On January 25, 1892, on a riverfront railroad track, in Memphis, Tennessee, Alice Mitchell slit the throat of Freda Ward. Mitchell explained: "I killed Freda because I loved her, and she refused to marry me." The murder and subsequent trial brought new, national attention to intense, passionate, romantic and sometimes sexual (and soured) intimacies between women. This feature includes reprints of two major scholarly analyses of Mitchell and Ward's intimacy, the murder, and its aftermath. It also reprints reports about an African American woman, Emma Williams, murdering another African American woman, Eleanor Richardson, in Mobile, Alabama. The papers compared this to Alice Mitchell's murder of Freda Ward.

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Alma Routsong, Author of "Patience and Sarah" (1967): A 1975 Interview by Jonathan Ned Katz

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For Women's History Month in 2016, OutHistory republished an interview by Jonathan Ned Katz with Alma Routsong. On January 20, 1975, the author of Patience and Sarah spoke to Katz about discovering her lesbianism and her development as a novelist. The interview was originally published in Katz's Gay American History (1976).

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Almeda Sperry to Emma Goldman, 1912, by Jonathan Ned Katz

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A collection of love letters to Emma Goldman, the anarchist leader, vividly conveys the emotions and varied life experience of Almeda Sperry, their complex author. The letters detail and evoke Sperry's tender-brutal relationship with her husband Fred; her bitter-funny cash relationship with Carnegie Steel Company boss "Newt"; her loving relationship with Florence, a graphically described woman friend; her own poor working-class childhood, and her passionate, would-be affair of the heart with Emma Goldman. Adapted from Gay American History: Lesbians and Gay Men in the U.S.A. (1976) by Jonathan Ned Katz. Republished on OutHistory April 29, 2015.

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Angela Calomiris (1916-1995): A Spy in the Lesbian Herstory Archives, by Lisa E. Davis

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An introduction to and overview of the story of Angela Calomiris, a working-class lesbian who was a key informant for the FBI in the 1940s against the Communist Party.

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Atlanta Since Stonewall, 1969-2009, by Wesley Chenault

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Atlanta Since Stonewall, 1969-2009: A Local History brings to life a segment of the city’s LGBTQ past, highlighting nationally recognized and little-known personalities, places, and events. Through photographs, printed materials, ephemera, and links to digital content, it presents diverse narratives of a marginalized people's lived experiences in the South’s gay epicenter. Animated by visual elements, these stories -- of adversity and triumph, struggle and pride, and loss and hope -- are inseparable from the history of the city itself and highlight the ways LGBTQ Atlantans found a political voice and personal fulfillment and dignity.


Atlanta Since Stonewall, 1969-2009: A Local History is a collaborative project between the Atlanta History Center and the Auburn Avenue Research Library on African American Culture and History. Located in the Buckhead area, the Atlanta History Center includes one of the largest history museums in the Southeast, a research library and archives, historic homes, gardens, and a nature trail. Anchoring the west end of the Sweet Auburn historic district, the Auburn Avenue Research Library is the first public library in the Southeast to offer specialized reference and archival collections dedicated to the study and research of African American culture and history and of other peoples of African descent.

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Blue-Collar Queers: An Introduction to Steel Closets, 2014, by Anne Balay

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Anne Balay tells OutHistory about her book Steel Closets: Voices of Gay, Lesbian, and Transgender Steelworkers, which is based on interviews with LGBT steelworkers in northwestern Indiana about their experiences of class, gender, and sexual identity at work.

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Chicago Stories, 2008, by John D'Emilio

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A series of articles by John D'Emilio written for the Windy City Times about Chicago's gay history and his own career as an historian of sexuality. Published on OutHistory February 5, 2013.

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