Browse material on the OutHistory website by time period.
An exhibit on the often overlooked queer history of Newark, New Jersey, a history that is "tragic at times, but also bold, defiant, and resistant." First published on OutHistory in 2014.
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.
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.
Ruth Peter Worth, originally Ruth Wertheimer, was a Jewish Holocaust survivor, a U.S. immigrant, a lesbian, and a long-time home owner in Cherry Grove, Fire Island, New York. Published originally on OutHistory in 2011.
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.
Billy Strayhorn Birthday Bio
A collection of biographies written by the students in Catherine Jacquet's Fall 2012 class at the University of Illinois, Chicago. The class was titled "Gender Non-Conformity in Historical Perspective."
This exhibit describes post-Stonewall gay activism at Oregon State University in Corvallis, Oregon and events that motivated the formation of the first officially recognized gay student group at OSU in 1976.
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…
Man-i-fest follows the letters of Lou Sullivan to David, highlighting the topics and mentors that shaped the FTM community in San Francisco from 1976 to 2009. The central items in the exhibit appeared in Gateway: the newsletter of Golden Gate…
A series of "musings on lesbian history" originally contributed as "Blog on History" by Joan Nestle, co-founder of the Lesbian Herstory Archives. Copyright © Joan Nestle 2008. All rights reserved.
An introduction to the 2010 discovery by historian Randall Sell of Riddle of the Underworld (1921), a long-missing trans memoir by Jennie June/Ralph Werther/Earl Lind, with thanks to Ted Faigle for his transcription work. See also Who Was Jennie…
A searchable edition of Barbara Grier's 1981 bibliography The Lesbian in Literature. Republished in 2013 with the permission of Barbara Grier.
"Lesbians in the Twentieth Century" was created by Professor Esther Newton and the graduate and undergraduate students in the seminar on "Lesbian History" that she taught in fall of 2006 at the University of Michigan. Newton and…
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,…
The history of African American gays and lesbians on Chicago's South Side. First published on OutHistory in 2012.
An exhibit based on original research in the extensive archive of a gay man who saved his correspondence. Adams (1903-1995) was born in Menominee, Michigan, moved to Chicago for several years, and then lived in New York for most of his life.