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.
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EXAMPLE 3: Caitlyn Jenner portrait in Betty Bettye Lane Photographs
Item level cataloging of photographs or visual materials can bring up additional questions . In this case, regarding naming. The photographer Bettye Lane photographed Caitlyn Bruce Jenner in 1977, almost 38 years before Bruce had transitioned to Caitlyn Jenner. 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 ." In order to help us determine whether we should retain "Bruce Jenner" in the description for the catalog record, we did research on whether Caitlyn had ever addressed dead naming and her former identity. Since Caitlyn Jenner is a known personality we were able to find online an interview in The Guardian (May 8, 2017) where she states she does not mind be being referred to as Bruce, “I “'I had a life for 65 years. OK?” ' Besides which, “I '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 information, we included kept Lane's caption "Bruce Jenner" 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. For example, The description of the Angela Davis papers does not address her sexuality since the collection does not contain materials directly related to it. Davis has publicly identified as lesbian since 1997. Is identity description always warranted in the creator's biography or in LCSH ?Example: Angela Davis [do we want to revisit that call about not including her sexuality in bio note?]This could be one of those questions that we might want more staff feedback on but we can include it here. Personally I think we should add that identity to the bio note even if the collection doesn’t have anything about her sexuality, assuming she is on board with it. But others might feel differently.in order to ensure LGBTQ+ visibility? This is a question we are currently exploring.
Recommendations
- Solicit input about identity from creator/donor of archival collections when possible.
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