An introduction to the 1937 case history of “Mary Jones,” who scholars have identified as African American actress Edna Thomas. First published on OutHistory in 2015.
A collection John Ibson's images of African American men with other men that appear in his 2002 book, Picturing Men: A Century of Male Relationships in Everyday American Photography. First published on OutHistory in 2015.
An exhibit on eighteenth century U.S. Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton and his relationship with John Laurens. Multiple historians consider how to interpret the intimacy between Alexander Hamilton and John Laurens during the American Revolution.…
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…
A gay teacher, born in 1959, recalls the bullying he suffered as a child, and how he came through it.
This exhibit introduces Carhart's 1895 novel, with a title character who utters the most affirmative defense of genital-orgasmic love relations between women published in English in the nineteenth century.
An introduction to Gertrude "Ma" Rainey's resistance anthem. First published by OutHistory in 2014.
An exhibit about the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation's surveillance of African American writer and activist James Baldwin in the 1960s and 1970s. First published on OutHistory in 2014.
Document and Biography of Author
The story of the German sexual emancipation pioneer and his references to the United States. Adapted from Jonathan Ned Katz's column, "Katz on History," The Advocate, April 25, 1989, pages 47-48. The essay was titled "The First…
An exhibit on the life of Sara Josephine Baker, a pioneering figure in the history of public health. Published originally on OutHistory in 2014.
This feature explores the human production of the terms and concepts "heterosexual," "homosexual," and "bisexual," which are presented here as evidence of the construction of a historically specific social order or…
A collection of biographies to celebrate Black History Month, first published on OutHistory on January 23, 2014.
Profiles of ten LGBT social justice activists by Rich Wilson. First published December 10, 2013. Last edited: May 28, 2017.
A French lawyer and politcian, Moreau de Saint Méry, who lived in the United States from 1793 to 1798, mostly in Philadelphia, provided one of the earliest comments on sex between women in the new American nation. First published on OutHistory in…
An exhibit on the queer intersectionality of African American writer Lorraine Hansberry, focusing on a 2013-2014 museum exhibit, an overview of Hansberry's life and work, and copies of Hansberry's correspondence with The Ladder.
President John F. Kennedy was famous for his vivid, and some might say almost compulsive, heterosexuality. But straight men can have a gay side, and JFK’s life was filled with prominent gay men. First published on OutHistory in 2013.
An exhibit on Gay and Lesbian Youth of New York and its relationship to the FBI in the 1980s.
Containing unique items from the personal collection of Rich Wilson, this exhibit focuses on 19th-century queer experience in the United States.
This proud moment in civil rights activism is also a moment to reflect on how LGBT civil rights strategies have overlapped with, drawn strength from, and patterned themselves on a century and a half of anti-racist struggle in the United States.