Postcards, Gender, Sexuality, History: A Public Forum
This entry, an off-shoot of the OutHistory.org postcards exhibit, is created to foster public discussion on the subject of the history of postcards as it refers to changing ideas and judgments about gender and sexuality.
OutHistory.org is also interested in comments on race, class, and other subjects, as such themes are reflected in the postcards focusing on gender and sexuality. If you have additional postcard images to share with us, OutHistory.org would be grateful and you may upload low resolution scans yourself.
The public is invited to add their comments on this page. We think that the insights that emerge will deepen our understanding of how postcards reflect changes in the popular culture of the United States.
We encourage you to leave an identifying name after your comment so that it's possible to distinguish comments by the same person. We hope that this page will foster communication between people who know about the history of postcards, and who will share their knowledge with everyone. Thanks: Jonathan Ned Katz, Director, OutHistory.org. Contact: jnk123@mac.com
Link to: Postcards: Masculine Women, Feminine Men; early-20th c.
Comments (most recent last):
I'm an independent researcher in Toronto, Canada. My particular interest is the study of gay/lesbian epithets via etymology. I always thought that, in absence of physical artifacts, even "words that hurt" could be used to give information about our history. I've been very fortunate with this approach as my search had led me to some important and overlooked documents. I primarily started collecting ephemera in order to give context to my work and escape reproduction rights issues and now it has grown into something more.
I liked early postcards as they use the social licence of humour to display images inappropriate in any other medium -images such as explicit sodomy, same sex affection, etc. Somehow, making fun allows one to get away with anything and so, I picked up my archaeologists brush and dusted there. Two years later, I ended up with over 250 postcard "artifacts" and scores more documents all pre-1940. It was a good idea to start with!
Now, of course, I face the sad experience of "Sophie's choice" everyday, fighting lack of funds, to choose which piece of LGBT history I can save from the floods of privateers that decontextualize history and dicker it to the highest bidder. As much as I think of the items I have, I still can't help thinking of the things that I missed saving. It really is a terrible business and that's why I decided to reach out and try linking with other people to share information. I figure only way to combat the loss of our history is to band together and share the little individual pieces of information we have. An undated postcard may seem a small item but I can tell you from experience that several people coming together and comparing postmarks for the same item can lead to something as important as the exact date and place that the term "Dude" became popularized.
I can't thank Jonathan enough for his efforts. I read Gay American History as a young man and just one of things I got from it was the passion to preserve documents in their raw state. Most people prefer to collect spotless postcards. I do prefer the ones with writing. I just received one of New York's Union Square from 1898, (noted cruising ground at the time) which had a quaint little note explaining, "In this neighbourhood is the German Branch Y.M.C.A.". Of course the best example, is the Tony Pastor's postcard on the OutHistory website writing of "queers".
Givinbak (givinbak@gmail.com)
