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When determining how to describe creators what’s at stake are two main things – ensuring that we accurately and respectfully describe how collection creators identify and understand their lives, AND that collections documenting queer lives and activism can be findable to our users. Applying standardized vocabularies like Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) to catalog records or finding aids is one important way for users to find and access materials. However, for LGBTQ+ individuals there can be a big difference between how a person self identifies and the LCSH term that is available. LCSH has many limitations and is also often slow to update outdated terminology and because it is insufficient ; because of this we cannot rely on it entirely.
Below are two examples where the archivists chose different approaches related to the application of LCSH in finding aids. These approaches were partly influenced by how the archivists’ understood the creators’ wishes and their knowledge of the collections.
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Because of his self-description the archivist did not add transgender as a subject heading in the finding aid even though many researchers would expect that term. The collection's catalog record was added to the library's LGBTQ+ research guide in order to ensure an LGBTQ+ access point tothe to the collection. Another option would be to consider The archivist could have also considered adding an "archivist’s note” in the finding aid which delves more into Smith’s self-description so researchers can understand why certain decisions were made.
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Schlesinger Library staff may not have adequately described a creator’s gender or sexual identity in the finding aid if the creator did not clearly self-identify. Below are multiple examples that fall within this category of unclear or unspoken identity.
EXAMPLE 1: Pauli Murray
The Civil Rights lawyer and Episcopal priest Pauli Murray was gender non-conforming and favored a masculine presentation. Some scholars have defined Murray's gender identity as transgender although many acknowledge that it can be problematic to apply a contemporary term to an historical figure if it was not available to them. Other scholars openly identify Murray as transgender in that they believe Murray would have probably embraced the term if it was available at the time. From what we know from the collection, Murray did not self-identify. The Pauli Murray Papers were processed in 1992, and the finding aid does not address Murray’s gender nonconformity or Murray's early experiences with gender identity. It is time to reassess this lack of description in the Murray finding aid as part of a general reassessment of legacy finding aids. We should try not to make assumptions about identity but can still explore descriptive options to help researchers better understand creators and their collections.
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Mary Ross Taylor gave the Schlesinger a collection of letters that documents her relationship with artist Judy Chicago. The nature of the relationship, which was sexual and romantic for a period of time in the early 1980s, is a reason Taylor wanted us to have the letters. Taylor refers to the sexual nature of the relationship in Gail Levin’s biography, Becoming Judy Chicago. Neither Chicago nor Taylor identify or identified as lesbians, so the archivist believed the use of that LCSH was not appropriate for the collection. The archivist described the relationship as sexual, and was clear about the nature of the letters in the text of the catalog record and finding aid. She also used the LCSH terms “love letters” and “female friendship.”
These decisions were discussed with the department head at the time, but weren’t really recorded in any fashion. It’s possible that our internal thinking and decisions about this kind of topic may change over time, which reinforces the importance of maintaining documentation about process and procedures related to identity.
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As with the Pauli Murray finding aid, it’s worth some more in-depth staff conversation and engagement with the related scholarship on these issues to decide whether and how to remediate existing descriptions and to establish an approach that would improve description and consistency across collections.
Determining Using correct pronouns
As with terminology related to gender or sexual identity, correct pronoun use is a way to further respect and acknowledge identity.
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The Ari Kane collection at the Schlesinger was processed in 2010. At the time the archivist chose the “he” pronoun to refer to Kane, since this is . This was the pronoun choice on Kane’s website at the time and confirmed this by providing Kane was provided with a copy of the finding aid for Kane’s review. Currently, however, the The finding aid would benefit from either a more detailed explanation of why certain choices were made related to pronoun use , as well as more detailed information on Kane’s identityor a reassessment of how to approach description when both pronouns could be relevant.
EXAMPLE 2: Soloway family
When the Soloway family papers were donated to the Schlesinger Library, Faith Soloway used the pronoun “she” and was referred to as thus in the catalog record and in the first iteration of the finding aid. In summer 2021, Faith Soloway began to use “they” pronouns, and when the finding aid was next updated, the text was checked and revise to remove revised, removing all use of “she” (through a request from curator to the archivist accessioning the new addenda to the collection).
Joey Soloway’s use of “they” pronouns coincided with their name change in 2020 (see below) - the . The finding aid was updated to include a specific reference to their pronoun, and all description warranting a pronoun usage was minimized.
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Deadnaming is a term describing continued use of the birthname or old name of a transgender or non-binary person who has transitioned. For many, use of previous names can be hurtful and interpreted as transphobic. Each individual is different, however, and a person's feelings about previous names may be complicated. It's important to be aware and sensitive to the issue.
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In addition to the pronoun issue above, Joey Soloway changed their name in the summer of 2020, necessitating changes to the finding aid. The archivist changed the existing biographical description and scope notes to reflect the name change. However, folders are listed with original titles in the finding aid. Joey had a long career under their former name, and much of the collection (including the folder titles) include includes Joey’s former name. The archivist felt she could not change all existences of the former name in the finding aid, and wrote a note to that extent in the scope note:
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Donor involvement in description, when possible, is ideal and historically that has often been the case at SchlesingerSchlesinger has engaged donors in this process. Donors can provide information on how they want to be identified, what pronouns they use, and what subject terms they would be ok with. Community input can also be helpful.
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Rely on free-text description in the biographical note. Come up with language to describe why terms are being used and add context, especially if keeping historical terms for accuracy but which now may be outdated.
“We do not presume to know a subject’s identity better than they do and therefore try to use chosen names, pronouns, and terms whenever possible. This remains true even for subjects who identify with terms which might today seem offensive, outdated, or imprecise.” Digital Transgender Archive Style Guide
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Apply the pronouns that are used by the creator, if clearly known. Possible examples can include She, He, Ze, Hir, they, etc. If pronoun use changes or has changed over time, address that in the narrative. If the creator uses more than one pronoun or it is unclear what pronoun they identify with consider avoiding the use of a specific pronoun in description in order to prevent preferencing one identity over another. If you do decide to use a pronoun, provide a note in the finding aid describing the creator’s identity and why we made certain pronoun choices. When possible, input by the creator will guide this decision.
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