Browse material on the OutHistory website by time period.
This timeline is a collaborative work-in-progress that has had many contributors over a long period of time. Some of the language used and concepts referenced, influenced by colonialism, imperialism, racism, sexism, and anti-LGBTQ+ beliefs and…
This timeline is a collaborative work-in-progress that has had many contributors over a long period of time. Some of the language used and concepts referenced, influenced by colonialism, imperialism, racism, sexism, and anti-LGBTQ+ beliefs and…
Links for exhibits on Alexander Hamilton/John Laurens and Moreau de Saint Méry, along with profiles of Frederick von Steuben and Deborah Sampson, published originally on OutHistory in 2020.
A brief introduction to an 18th century medical account of a trans person in a Paris hospital.
On the publication of Jen Manion’s book Liberty's Prisoners: Carceral Culture in Early America (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2015), OutHistory featured an original essay by Manion. It discusses how sex between men in early Philadelphia…
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.…
This exhibit, published originally on OutHistory in 2014, explores a series of stories published in children’s books and magazines in antebellum America. Some portray children being punished for transgressing gender roles, others expose the range of…
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 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…
Richmond is an old place, at least in American terms. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people have always been a part of its history. This exhibit, published originally on OutHistory in 2013, is dedicated to all those who challenged the norms…
The years from 1607 to 1783 constitute the founding era of what became the United States. In the early years of this era, in these American colonies, the penalty for sodomy was death, and a number of executions are documented. Sodomy was usually…
Primary documents about the lives of persons identified at birth as female, who later lived and sometimes identified as male. Documents reprinted from Jonathan Ned Katz, Gay American History: Lesbians and Gay Men in the U.S.A. (NY: Crowell, 1976).…
These documents about LGBTQ+ Native Americans present years of testimony from a wide variety of observers: military men, missionaries, explorers, trappers, traders, settlers, and later, medical doctors, anthropologists, homosexual emancipationists,…