Overview
Schlesinger collections document the lived realities and activism of women, as well as changing societal ideas and laws around sexuality and gender. Since its earliest days the library has actively collected papers documenting lesbian lives, from 19th century diaries of female friendships to lesbian activism and community in the late 20th century. More recently our collecting focus has encompassed the many expressions of sexuality and gender within the LGBTQ+ communities. In light of this, we want to evaluate and reassess our descriptive practices – both historically and currently -- in order to ensure that how we identify and describe the LGBTQ+ individuals and communities in our collections is both respectful and accurate.
Definitions and background
LGBTQ+ = lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning. The plus refers to other identities/terminologies which fall under the wide umbrella of gender and sexual expressions (e.g. intersex, asexual, genderqueer; nonbinary; genderfluid; pansexual, etc.)
What is the difference between gender identity and sexual identity? Gender identity relates to one’s personal sense of having a particular gender, whether that falls under the traditionally understood binary of men and women or within a broader spectrum. Sexual identity relates specifically to who one is romantically and sexually attracted to.
Gender and sexual identities can be nuanced, unique, and fluid – sometimes changing for individuals over time. This can be reflected in terminology. “Words related to queer and trans identities especially constitute continuous battlegrounds as terms are created, discarded, reclaimed, disputed, etc. The accepted terms today may be offensive tomorrow (in fact, some might contest them now).” Digital Transgender Archive Style Guide
Issues and examples
Balancing self-description with controlled vocabulary
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 often slow to update outdated terminology; 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.
EXAMPLE 1: Jean Elizabeth Wolfe
In the example of the Papers of Jean Wolfe we used the preferred terminology of the creator as well as the terminology available to us via LCSH in the collections finding aid.
Jean Wolfe was a physical education teacher and medical illustrator, who was sexually attracted to women but did not want to be identified as a lesbian. She self-identified instead as a “mid-century gentleman butch.” In this particular case the archivist who processed her papers put her preferred term in the description and also added lesbians as an LCSH in order to help researchers who would be interested in Wolfe’s sexuality find the collection through a subject term search. Potentially it is problematic to use the LCSH term lesbian in this case since Wolfe did not refer to herself as lesbian. If Wolfe was alive when the collection was processed she would have been consulted about this decision. The archivist’s decision was informed entirely by her knowledge of the collection and of Wolfe’s life.
EXAMPLE 2: Mark Ethan Smith
For the Mark Ethan Smith Papers finding aid the archivist chose to align the LCSH terms with the creator’s identity in order provide accurate representation of Smith’s identity in the finding aid. She then found other ways to ensure visibility of the collection to researchers interested in LGBTQ+ subject area.
Mark Ethan Smith was born Marcia Ellen Bazer in 1940 and changed his name to Mark Ethan Smith in 1981. He describes himself as a biological female who lives as a person without regard to sex. In his writings about himself he specifically denies that he is a transsexual, transvestite, or lesbian and he does not describe himself as transgender. On one site online he calls himself a non-traditional, heterosexual older female liberated from gender roles. He also has written that he presents as a man in order to ensure survival in a sexist, oppressive world (and does not indicate that he feels his gender identity does not align with his birth sex).
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 to the collection. 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.
Understanding that a person’s identity may be unspoken or their identity may have changed over time
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.
EXAMPLE 2: Mary Ross Taylor and Judy Chicago
A similar example related to unspoken identity is when a creator may be engaging in same-sex romantic or sexual behavior but does not articulate an identity (sometimes due to historical reasons).
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.”
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.
EXAMPLE 3: “Boston marriage” collections
In late 19th and early 20th century New England, it was not uncommon for two women to create a household together. These women were often well-educated and from wealthy families; they did not need to marry men for financial support. Many had careers and were active in social reform movements. Some of these relationships developed into romantic and sexual relationships.
These relationships are often referred to as “Boston marriages.” The Schlesinger holds papers documenting these types of relationship, many collected relatively early on in Schlesinger’s history because of the women’s political activism or work in social reform.
In many cases, Schlesinger legacy description of these women does not dwell on the nature of their relationships. This could be because the archival collections themselves contain more professional material and less personal material, because of fears around potential outing, because of homophobia, or a number of different reasons. Historically and currently, collections where women are known to have had romantic or sexual partners are included in the Library’s LGBTQ Research Guide but are not necessarily adequately described.
In the Louise Marion Bosworth Papers finding aid, the archivist used the LCSH term Women—Sexual behavior; describes a “friendship” breaking up; and also Bosworth’s description in a diary of her “sexuality.” In the Mary Ellicott Arnold Papers finding aid, users discover in the biographical note, that at a young age, Arnold moved to Somerville, New Jersey, where she began a friendship with Mabel Reed (1876-1962), who would become her lifelong companion and colleague. There are no relevant LCSH terms or additional description about their relationship.
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.
Using correct pronouns
As with terminology related to gender or sexual identity, correct pronoun use is a way to further respect and acknowledge identity.
EXAMPLE 1: Ari Kane
The Papers of J. Ari Kane-DeMaios is an example where pronoun choice in the finding aid could be better explained or clarified. Ari Kane is a transgender activist, counselor, and former executive director of the Outreach Institute of Gender Studies. Kane uses both “he” and “she” pronouns and identifies with both genders.
According to the Ari Kane papers finding aid at the Online Archive of California, “Kane is bisexual, bi-gender, and androgynous, identifying with both masculinity and femininity; [Kane’s] pronouns are ‘he'’ and 'she.’ ... Kane explicitly does not identify as nonbinary, but rather with both binary genders.”
The Ari Kane collection at the Schlesinger was processed in 2010. At the time the archivist chose the “he” pronoun to refer to Kane. This was the pronoun choice on Kane’s website at the time and Kane was provided with a copy of the finding aid for review. The finding aid would benefit from either a more detailed explanation of why certain choices were made related to pronoun use or 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 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 finding aid was updated to include a specific reference to their pronoun, and all description warranting a pronoun usage was minimized.
Deadnaming
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.
EXAMPLE 1: Soloway family
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) 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:
“After Joey Soloway's name change in June 2020, finding aid description and series titles were updated. Many original folder titles contain the name Jill; these were kept as originally written.” Also, as part of this process, the archivist offered to Joey Soloway that she would facilitate the change of Joey's name in the Library of Congress Name Authority file.
The archivist sent the new description to Joey Soloway for their approval, and they signed off on it. It’s possible that Schlesinger archivists and Joey Soloway may decide to revisit this decision in the future.
EXAMPLE 2: Jennifer Finney Boylan
In the Jennifer Finney Boylan papers, the description in the biographical note and the scope and content note uses Boylan’s pronoun, “she.” However, within the collection there are folder entries, specifically for photographs of Boylan before she transitioned from male to female, which uses her former name. While Boylan reviewed the finding aid prior to its publication, it may be beneficial for the archivist to specifically point out to the creator about these particular decisions related to naming to further ensure that this was the correct decision.Overview
Schlesinger collections document the lived realities and activism of women, as well as changing societal ideas and laws around sexuality and gender. Since its earliest days the library has actively collected papers documenting lesbian lives, from 19th century diaries of female friendships to lesbian activism and community in the late 20th century. More recently our collecting focus has encompassed the many expressions of sexuality and gender within the LGBTQ+ communities. In light of this, we want to evaluate and reassess our descriptive practices – both historically and currently -- in order to ensure that how we identify and describe the LGBTQ+ individuals and communities in our collections is both respectful and accurate.
Definitions and background
LGBTQ+ = lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning. The plus refers to other identities/terminologies which fall under the wide umbrella of gender and sexual expressions (e.g. intersex, asexual, genderqueer; nonbinary; genderfluid; pansexual, etc.)
What is the difference between gender identity and sexual identity? Gender identity relates to one’s personal sense of having a particular gender, whether that falls under the traditionally understood binary of men and women or within a broader spectrum. Sexual identity relates specifically to who one is romantically and sexually attracted to.
Gender and sexual identities can be nuanced, unique, and fluid – sometimes changing for individuals over time. This can be reflected in terminology. “Words related to queer and trans identities especially constitute continuous battlegrounds as terms are created, discarded, reclaimed, disputed, etc. The accepted terms today may be offensive tomorrow (in fact, some might contest them now).” Digital Transgender Archive Style Guide
Issues and examples
Balancing self-description with controlled vocabulary
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 often slow to update outdated terminology; 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.
EXAMPLE 1: Jean Elizabeth Wolfe
In the example of the Papers of Jean Wolfe we used the preferred terminology of the creator as well as the terminology available to us via LCSH in the collections finding aid.
Jean Wolfe was a physical education teacher and medical illustrator, who was sexually attracted to women but did not want to be identified as a lesbian. She self-identified instead as a “mid-century gentleman butch.” In this particular case the archivist who processed her papers put her preferred term in the description and also added lesbians as an LCSH in order to help researchers who would be interested in Wolfe’s sexuality find the collection through a subject term search. Potentially it is problematic to use the LCSH term lesbian in this case since Wolfe did not refer to herself as lesbian. If Wolfe was alive when the collection was processed she would have been consulted about this decision. The archivist’s decision was informed entirely by her knowledge of the collection and of Wolfe’s life.
EXAMPLE 2: Mark Ethan Smith
For the Mark Ethan Smith Papers finding aid the archivist chose to align the LCSH terms with the creator’s identity in order provide accurate representation of Smith’s identity in the finding aid. She then found other ways to ensure visibility of the collection to researchers interested in LGBTQ+ subject area.
Mark Ethan Smith was born Marcia Ellen Bazer in 1940 and changed his name to Mark Ethan Smith in 1981. He describes himself as a biological female who lives as a person without regard to sex. In his writings about himself he specifically denies that he is a transsexual, transvestite, or lesbian and he does not describe himself as transgender. On one site online he calls himself a non-traditional, heterosexual older female liberated from gender roles. He also has written that he presents as a man in order to ensure survival in a sexist, oppressive world (and does not indicate that he feels his gender identity does not align with his birth sex).
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 to the collection. 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.
Understanding that a person’s identity may be unspoken or their identity may have changed over time
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.
EXAMPLE 2: Mary Ross Taylor and Judy Chicago
A similar example related to unspoken identity is when a creator may be engaging in same-sex romantic or sexual behavior but does not articulate an identity (sometimes due to historical reasons).
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.”
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.
EXAMPLE 3: “Boston marriage” collections
In late 19th and early 20th century New England, it was not uncommon for two women to create a household together. These women were often well-educated and from wealthy families; they did not need to marry men for financial support. Many had careers and were active in social reform movements. Some of these relationships developed into romantic and sexual relationships.
These relationships are often referred to as “Boston marriages.” The Schlesinger holds papers documenting these types of relationship, many collected relatively early on in Schlesinger’s history because of the women’s political activism or work in social reform.
In many cases, Schlesinger legacy description of these women does not dwell on the nature of their relationships. This could be because the archival collections themselves contain more professional material and less personal material, because of fears around potential outing, because of homophobia, or a number of different reasons. Historically and currently, collections where women are known to have had romantic or sexual partners are included in the Library’s LGBTQ Research Guide but are not necessarily adequately described.
In the Louise Marion Bosworth Papers finding aid, the archivist used the LCSH term Women—Sexual behavior; describes a “friendship” breaking up; and also Bosworth’s description in a diary of her “sexuality.” In the Mary Ellicott Arnold Papers finding aid, users discover in the biographical note, that at a young age, Arnold moved to Somerville, New Jersey, where she began a friendship with Mabel Reed (1876-1962), who would become her lifelong companion and colleague. There are no relevant LCSH terms or additional description about their relationship.
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.
Using correct pronouns
As with terminology related to gender or sexual identity, correct pronoun use is a way to further respect and acknowledge identity.
EXAMPLE 1: Ari Kane
The Papers of J. Ari Kane-DeMaios is an example where pronoun choice in the finding aid could be better explained or clarified. Ari Kane is a transgender activist, counselor, and former executive director of the Outreach Institute of Gender Studies. Kane uses both “he” and “she” pronouns and identifies with both genders.
According to the Ari Kane papers finding aid at the Online Archive of California, “Kane is bisexual, bi-gender, and androgynous, identifying with both masculinity and femininity; [Kane’s] pronouns are ‘he'’ and 'she.’ ... Kane explicitly does not identify as nonbinary, but rather with both binary genders.”
The Ari Kane collection at the Schlesinger was processed in 2010. At the time the archivist chose the “he” pronoun to refer to Kane. This was the pronoun choice on Kane’s website at the time and Kane was provided with a copy of the finding aid for review. The finding aid would benefit from either a more detailed explanation of why certain choices were made related to pronoun use or 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 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 finding aid was updated to include a specific reference to their pronoun, and all description warranting a pronoun usage was minimized.
Deadnaming
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.
EXAMPLE 1: Soloway family
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) 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:
“After Joey Soloway's name change in June 2020, finding aid description and series titles were updated. Many original folder titles contain the name Jill; these were kept as originally written.” Also, as part of this process, the archivist offered to Joey Soloway that she would facilitate the change of Joey's name in the Library of Congress Name Authority file.
The archivist sent the new description to Joey Soloway for their approval, and they signed off on it. It’s possible that Schlesinger archivists and Joey Soloway may decide to revisit this decision in the future.
EXAMPLE 2: Jennifer Finney Boylan
In the Jennifer Finney Boylan papers, the description in the biographical note and the scope and content note uses Boylan’s pronoun, “she.” However, within the collection there are folder entries, specifically for photographs of Boylan before she transitioned from male to female, which uses her former name. While Boylan reviewed the finding aid prior to its publication, it may be beneficial for the archivist to specifically point out to the creator about these particular decisions related to naming to further ensure that this was the correct decision.
EXAMPLE 3: Caitlyn Jenner portrait in Betty Lane Photographs
Item level cataloging of photographs or visual materials can bring up additional questions. In this case, Bettye Lane photographed Caitlyn Jenner in 1977. Lane's caption on the slide includes Jenner's pre-transition name, "Bruce Jenner 1/10/77". Since Caitlyn Jenner is a known personality we were able to find an interview where she states she does not mind be referred to as Bruce, “I had a life for 65 years. OK?” Besides which, “I liked Bruce. He was a good person. He did a lot in his life. Oh, ‘he didn’t even exist’. Yes he did exist!..." Given this, we included Lane's caption and added: Bruce Jenner [pre-transition name, as captioned by Bettye Lane in 1977]; 1-10-1977.
When to describe
There are situations where a collection doesn’t contain directly related content about the creator’s sexual or gender identity but the individual does identify under the LGBTQ+ umbrella. Is identity description warranted in biography or in LCSH?
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