>> Megan Metcalf:
Welcome, everyone to
"Finding LGBTQIA+ 
History Hidden
in Newspapers and Periodicals."
Today's presentation will
demonstrate how to search and
find LGBTGIA+ history using the
historic newspaper and
periodical collection at the
Library of Congress.
My name is Meg Metcalf and I
am the Women's Gender and
LGBTQIA+ Studies Librarian and
Collection Specialist here at
the library where I work in the
Newspaper and Current Periodical
Reading Room. The Reading Room
is the primary access point for
historic newspaper and
periodical research at the
library. Here, you can access
one of the most comprehensive
collections of newspapers in
the world.
Whether you're in need of an
18th century newspaper, a comic
book or yesterday's headlines,
the Reading Room and the
reference staff who work here,
have you covered.
The Reading Room is located on
the first floor of the Madison
Building and Room LM-133.
In addition to stopping by in
person, you can write to our
reference librarians and
specialists at ask.loc.gov or
give us a call at
(202) 707-5690.
Now, let's get started digging
through the newspaper pages of
history. This is "Chronicling
America."
Today, I'll be showing you how
to use this free resource to
research LGBTQIA+ history.
"Chronicling America" is a
searchable digital collection
that includes over 20 million
pages of historic newspapers
dating from 1770 to 1963.
This resource is sponsored
jointly by the National
Endowment for the Humanities
and the Library of Congress.
"Chronicling America" is
accessible anywhere with an
Internet connection at
chroniclingamerica.loc.gov.
Just a quick note, "Chronicling
America" will soon be migrating
to a new search interface.
So by the time you are watching
this, "Chronicling America"
might look more like 
what you see here.
The launch of the full
collection is expected in the
coming year. You will notice
there will be a number of
additional ways to customize
your search.
With that in mind, let's talk
about how you can build 
a research strategy.
I've put together here some
tips for searching historic
newspapers. So pause to read if
you need to.
The reason this is so important
is because searching historic
newspapers using modern terms
like gay or lesbian won't bring
up resources from earlier time
periods because these words
weren't in use or they had very
different meanings.
So for researching earlier time
periods, you will want to
develop a list of historical
vocabulary for the specific era
and region you 
are interested in.
Let's take a look at an
example.
Let's say you're researching
lesbian or transmasc history.
I would recommend that you
generate a list of terms or
phrases that would have been
used to describe these
individuals in earlier time
periods.
Let's take a look at what
happens when you search 
for "Female husband."
I will start by 
navigating to the
"Advanced Search" tab, where I
will use the "With The Phrase"
search so that my results should
only include results where
female husband appears as a
phrase and not as separate
words on the page.
When I did this search, I got
almost 200 results.
And by the way, this is how
that same search is going to
look in the new "Chronicling
America"
with the additional 
search functions.
These are just a few articles
that came up in the results of
our "Female husband" phrase
search.
You might be surprised at the
rich information you can harvest
even just from one newspaper
article.
One of the most important
pieces of information you could
possibly find are names.
And these results I came across
the name of one so-called female
husband, Frank Dubois, as well
as the name of their wife,
Gertrude Fuller.
Having both names opens up new
ways to search not only in
historic newspapers, but other
resources as well.
Here, you will see how I
searched using both of their
names, which resulted in 38
additional articles about the
couple. Piecing together
information from the articles,
we learn not just that Frank and
Gertrude were married, but the
articles even include quotes
from Gertrude,
who stands up for
her husband, Frank.
And I did in fact, find
Gertrude and Frank's marriage
registration seen on the right
side here, which provided even
more information on the
relatives and acquaintances.
Newspapers can provide enough
information that you can extend
your research into other
formats like these. Resources
like city directory, marriage
records, telephone books, census
and government documents can
illuminate the who, the where
and when LGBTQIA+ people lived,
worked and traveled.
In addition to finding evidence
of relationships, newspapers are
excellent resources for tracing
the careers
of LGBTQIA artists
and creatives.
For example, here are some
amazing articles
on Dorothy Arzner and 
her partner of over
40 years, Marion Morgan.
Dorothy was one of the first
women directors in Hollywood,
and Marion was a renowned
choreographer and screenwriter.
They were together from 1927
until Marion passed away in
1971. Researchers can also find
articles about other famous
stage names like Maud Allan,
Alla Nazimova
and Eva Le Gallienne. 
A quick search tip,
you will notice that the
Spanish language article in the
upper right corner spells Eva's
last name differently.
This is a reminder that if you
are interested in global news
coverage, you might consider
generating a list of terms
related to your subject in that
language.
There are a few different ways
you can search foreign language
titles in "Chronicling America."
Of course, you can simply just
search using terms in your
chosen language.
You can also use the advanced
search to narrow your results to
a specific language using the
dropdown menu you see here.
You will want to be especially
thoughtful if you are searching
non-English newspapers for
trans or gender non-conforming
people. Well, it might be
intuitive to search using the
various names these individuals
used throughout their lifetime.
There are additional
considerations when searching
using resources like
"Chronicling America," which has
newspapers in over 20
languages.
A good example of this would be
We'Wha.
We'Wha might be understood as
part of the two-spirit
community were they alive
today.
Two-spirit is a modern umbrella
term for Indigenous Peoples
whose identities did not
conform to the Western
understanding of binary gender.
Of course, tribes have many
terms in their own languages
for two-spirit people.
Many, two-spirit people have
had special roles in their
community, like We'Wha, who acted
as a type of
cultural ambassador
for the Zuni.
Newspapers detailed a number of
events in We'Wha's life, but in
order to find all of them, I had
to vary my spelling of We'Wha.
I also collected terms used to
describe We'Wha in the various
articles and began to include
those as part of my search
strategy. Searching Zuni
Princess brought up articles
that were not available, just
searching using various
spelling of We'Wha's name.
I was also delighted to find a
number of illustrations
 of We'Wha
photographs, comics and
illustrations are yet another
treasure of newspaper research.
If you are struggling with
finding relevant articles,
especially when searching in
non-English resources, I would
highly recommend consulting a
native speaker or working with
the research librarian who can
assist you. With just a little
search savvy, the long history
of trans and gender
nonconforming people and
communities can be
discovered in
historic newspapers.
This includes the history of
drag and drag balls.
Historian Channing Gerard Joseph
has illuminated the story of
William Dorsey Swann, who is
now credited as the first drag
queen. Although many think of
New York when they think of drag
history, newspapers revealed
that the earliest records we can
find of drag balls were
actually here in 
Washington D.C.,
held by a man formerly
enslaved, William Dorsey Swann.
Through these newspaper
articles, researchers can find
the addresses of the drag
gatherings, descriptions of
clothing, names of attendees,
and also acts of resistance.
In the case of William Dorsey
Swann, newspapers note that
Swann did not go without
putting up a fight.
Continuing with our theme of
resistance, newspapers can be a
wonderful resource for learning
about the history
of LGBTQIA activism in general.
This includes historic moments
like the first Pride March in
New York in 1970, which was
celebrated on the one-year
anniversary of the Stonewall
Uprising.
Speaking of Stonewall,
newspapers can also help to
construct a timeline of
activism.
This can assist in correcting
major historical misconceptions.
For example, Stonewall is often
credited as the first queer
uprising, when in fact,
newspaper articles provide vivid
details of bar raids and
community resistance to the
police well before the
Stonewall Uprising in June of
1969. Also documented in
newsprint is the history of
LGBTQIA literature and attempts
to suppress and silence it.
Censorship attempts,
obscenity battles and book
burnings have a long history
that can be found in
newspapers. Here we see articles
related to the banning of books
by James Baldwin,
Oscar Wilde
and Radclyffe Hall.
The image on the bottom shows
the Library of the Institute for
Sexology being seized and then
burned by Nazis in 1933.
The Institute of Sexology is
considered by many to be the
very origin of LGBTQIA studies
as we know it today.
In fact, the term transgender
likely wouldn't exist without
it, as its founder, Magnus
Hirschfeld coined the term,
"Transsexual" in a 1923 essay.
Of particular note to American
LGBTQ history,
among the items burned in the
archive were likely copies of
"Friendship and Freedom," the
newsletter published by the
Society for Human Rights, the
first known gay rights
organization in the United
States.
No known copies of this title
survive today,
speaking to the dangers of
banning not just books, but also
periodicals and other types of
content.
Books certainly aren't the only
material that has been banned or
censored. This has also
extended to periodicals,
including self publications.
One magazine was the first
nationally distributed gay
periodical in the United
States.
The magazine had trouble with
the law in the state of
California, considering it
obscene with the Postal Service
seizing and refusing to deliver
the issues.
Despite their initial losses,
one launched a case that made it
all the way to the U.S. Supreme
Court, and in 1958 the court
ruled that the magazine was not
inherently obscene and thus was
eligible for constitutional
protection.
This landmark ruling was the
first from the U.S. Supreme Court
to deal with homosexuality,
which opened the door for a
proliferation of queer culture
in print.
One magazine was not the only
early title to face issues
with the post office,
a number of letters to the
latter indicate readers had
issues receiving their copies.
The latter was published by the
first official lesbian rights
group in the United States, the
Daughters of Bilitis.
It was the first U.S. lesbian
periodical to be distributed
nationally. Luckily, we are
able to provide access to a
complete run of the latter at
the library.
Check out a full run of the
reprint issues on reference in
the Main Reading Room, or visit
the Newspaper and Current
Periodical Reading Room to see
the originals.
The library also has a large
and growing collection of early
trans periodicals like
"Turnabout," "Transvestia,"
"Drag Magazine" and 
"Glad Rag" from the UK.
As well as early titles from
the 1960s and 70s, which
document the transition from
homophile organizing to gay
liberation and lesbian
feminism.
The library collection of
LGBTQIA periodicals continues
into the 80s and 90s like the
titles seen here and we are
still subscribing and adding
new titles to the collections as
they emerge. We also have a
wonderful selection of foreign
language titles available both
in print and digitally.
Another great resource for
LGBTQIA history are indie comics
and zines. Accessible in the
Newspaper and Current Periodical
Reading Room is the world's
largest public collection of
comic books, which includes
indie and underground titles
like "Gay Comics," "Tales of the
Closet," "Dyke Shorts" and more.
If you feel stuck at any point
in your research or just need
some tips on how to get
started, connect with the
librarians and subject experts
here at the library through our
free "Ask a Librarian" service.
This is a free email-based
service available to anyone,
anywhere. To get started, just
head to ask.loc.gov and select
"Newspapers, Periodicals,
Comic Books.
We also offer research guides
at guides.loc.gov.
Many of the resources
and research strategies I've
shared with you today can be
found on the LGBTQ+ studies
resource guide linked here.
I keep this resource updated as
I continue to discover materials
as well as purchase new ones
for the library.
The Newspaper and Current
Periodical Reading Room also has
a number of research guides,
including a guide to
researching in
"Chronicling America."
You can also keep up with us at
blogs.loc.gov/headlinesandheroes
or on Twitter @ChronAmLoc.
For every story we've
uncovered, there are so many
more just waiting to be found.
If you make a discovery on
"Chronicling America," share it
back with us via "Ask a
Librarian"
or tag #ChronAm
on social media.
That concludes my presentation
for today, which I hope has
encouraged you to start
exploring LGBTQIA history using
historic newspapers and
periodicals.