Difference between revisions of "Wilson Collection: Same-Sex Desire in the Old West"
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[[File:Oldwestminersdance.jpg]] | [[File:Oldwestminersdance.jpg]] | ||
| − | (Print from the article “Pioneer Mining in California” | + | ''(Print from the article “Pioneer Mining in California” |
| − | in The Century Magazine, May 1891) | + | in The Century Magazine, May 1891)'' |
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| − | Same-Sex Desire in the Old West | + | '''Same-Sex Desire in the Old West''' |
| − | Sexual and gender nonconformity lay at the heart of the Old West. A mining camp description from 1852 says, “Dancing parties such as these [all-male miners' dances] were very common, especially in small camps.” | + | Sexual and gender nonconformity lay at the heart of the Old West. A mining camp description from 1852 says, “Dancing parties such as these [all-male miners' dances] were very common, especially in small camps.”<ref>Peter Boag, ''Re-Dressing America's Frontier Past'' (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2011), 214 n. 7.</ref> |
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| + | A “Mrs. Nash” served ten years as laundress with Custer's Seventh Calvary.<ref>Boag, 130.</ref> When she died in 1878 her male sex was discovered. Her third soldier-husband killed himself over the resulting ridicule he faced from fellow soldiers. | ||
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| + | And in California, in 1876, Jeanne Bonnet (a reputed “man hater”) was killed by a hail of bullets through her bedroom window.<ref>Boag, 35.</ref> She was in bed awaiting her bedmate Blanche Beunon who was busy undressing. Guilty fingers pointed to Beunon's jilted male lover. | ||
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| + | ==''References''== | ||
| + | <references /> | ||
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| − | + | ==''To return to "Exhibit contents" links, click:''== | |
| − | + | ==[[Rich Wilson: Aspects of Queer Existence in 19th-Century America]]== | |
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Latest revision as of 12:12, 26 November 2012
(Print from the article “Pioneer Mining in California” in The Century Magazine, May 1891)
Same-Sex Desire in the Old West
Sexual and gender nonconformity lay at the heart of the Old West. A mining camp description from 1852 says, “Dancing parties such as these [all-male miners' dances] were very common, especially in small camps.”[1]
A “Mrs. Nash” served ten years as laundress with Custer's Seventh Calvary.[2] When she died in 1878 her male sex was discovered. Her third soldier-husband killed himself over the resulting ridicule he faced from fellow soldiers.
And in California, in 1876, Jeanne Bonnet (a reputed “man hater”) was killed by a hail of bullets through her bedroom window.[3] She was in bed awaiting her bedmate Blanche Beunon who was busy undressing. Guilty fingers pointed to Beunon's jilted male lover.
References
