1900s Cross Dressing Gender Expression Photo Album, Wisconsin and Harvard Alumni

[LGBTQ] [Cross Dressing] Photo album containing 82 black and white photos capturing queer gender expression and cross dressing in the early 1900s. The album features several shots of female-born people wearing men's clothing including traditional suits and slacks from the early 1900s. 82 black and white photographs pasted on brown leaves in pebbled leatherbound album with gilt text on the cover "Album for Snap-Shot Pictures." The first blank leaf has a stamp "Made in Germany", but the photos seem to be from the United States as one photograph of the queer group are seated in suits and newsboy caps in front of a fireplace with various University pendents (truncated) tacked onto the wall such as "Harvard", "Wisconsin", and "Whitewater [Wisconsin]." Several photos feature a group of female-born people all wearing men's button down shirts and ties, dress slacks, some smoking from pipes in which was solely a men's habit. Photographs are both indoors and outdoors, cross-dressing was prosecutable in the United States which shows the risk these individuals were willing to take in order to express their identities. One larger photograph shows some of the group playing cards on a sunny day in a grassy field, all dressed in button up shoes, bowler hats and fedoras, slacks and low heeled boots, one with a pipe in their mouth. One photograph shows a male-born person in a fur stole and jeweled head wrap, with two women in dresses laying on either side smoking cigarettes, which was only societally acceptable for women after the Suffragette movement. About 10 of the photos showcase gender expression, while there are also a few photos of the group of female-born persons in women's attire as they seat with other family members and friends in order to accommodate society's perception of them. Album cover is disbound and has heavy chipping. The photographs are in mostly good condition with a few having some staining or foxing. This archive is scarce and overall good condition. In the United States, "cross-dressing" has been used as a catchall term for queer gender expression. Considering the harsh legal ramifications of cross-dressing, these photographs show public rebellions against the constraints of heteronormative society. Because of the legal and social risks taken by these subjects, the historic record they left behind is marked with courage. (Inventory #: 20600)