Timeline: 19th Century
A Chronology of Public Events in U.S. Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Heterosexual History in the Nineteenth Century
A “public event” is defined broadly here as an event known about by three or more people. But most events here are documented by newspaper reports, trial records, and other such public sources of information.
With its users help, OutHistory.org will strive to provide brief descriptions and reliable dates and full and reliable sources for each of the public events listed.
A few entries are provided below, to establish the content and style of this entry.
Timeline
1855
Lucy Ann Lobdell self-publishes her Narrative of Lucy Ann Lobdell, the Female Hunter of Delaware and Sullivan Counties (New York), the story of her life as a woman who pushes against the social restraints placed on the actions of women in society.[1]
1855, June, late:
The first edition of Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass us put on sale in at least two stores in New York City, and another in Brooklyn.[2]
1856, September 11:
The second edition of Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass is registered in the United States Copyright Office.[3]
1860, May
Publication of the third edition of Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass, this edition containing the new "Calamus" section about men's desire for and attraction to men.[4]
1863, July 25
Fincher's Trades Review: An Advocate of the Rigihts of the Producing Classes, publishes "A Curious Married Couple," discussing the "Thirty-four years of pretended matrimony" of Mary East/James How and her "wife."<Katz, Gay American History, pages 225-226, note ???, page ???</ref>
1867
An anonymous essay, "Aberrations of the Sexual Instinct", in the London Medical Times and Gazette, presents a classic defense of traditional attitudes towards women, giving many examples referring to the United States, illustrating how any unconventional woman, whose behavior deviated from social norms, might be condemned as a "sexual aberration".<Katz, Gay American History, pages 228-230, note ???, page ???</ref>
1879-1882
Ellen Coit Brown recalls a scandal at Cornel University involving "A woman dressed up in a man's suit" and a "handsome girl student".[5]
1883, January:
Dr. P. M. Wise, in a St. Louis medical journal, the Alienist and Neurologist, in an article titled "Case of Sexual Perversion," discusses the life and "lesbian love" of the cross-dressing "Lucy Ann Slater, alias, Rev. Joseph Lobdell" (Lucy Ann Lobdell) in New York State.[6]
1884
Dr. James G. Kiernan, in an article on "Sexual Perversion", published in the Detroit Lancet, surveys the American, German, and other early writings on sexual relations between members of the same sex, and mentions "the most curious" American report of sex between two women -- the case of "Joe" or Lucy Ann Lobdell and her female lover.
1888
The Personal Memoirs of Philip H. Sheridan, Union army general, refers to a pair of female, cross-dressed Civil War soldiers between whom "an intimacy had sprung up".[7]
1892, May:
Dr. James G. Kiernan publishes "Responsibility in Sexual Perversion" in the Chicago Medical Recorder with a footnote that includes the first-known uses in the U.S. of the terms "hetero-sexual" and "homo-sexual" (attributed to Richard von Krafft-Ebing).[8]
Right: James G. Kiernan.[9]
1893
Dr. F. E. Daniel, of Austin, Texas, first presents a paper on eugenic castration at an international medico-legal congress held in New York. suggesting "It might be well enough to . . . asexualize all criminals". Originally titled "Should Insane Criminals or Sexual Perverts Be Allowwed to Procreate?" this paper was reprinted in three different medical joruansl, the last in 1912.[10]
1894, January 18
The Badger State Banner, published in Black River Falls, Wisconsin, carries the news that Anna Morris, alias Frank Blunt, had been sentenced to a year in prison at Fond du Lac, where Gertrude Field "fell upon the neck of the prisoner and wept for half an hour".[11]
1894, March 28
A disturbed letter carrier, Guy T. Olmstead, shoots another postman, William L. Clifford, in Chicago, after Clifford rejects Olmstead's advances, and the case is discussed by Dr. Talbot in a report published in 1896 by Havelock Ellis (see below).[12]
1895
Havelock Ellis writes on "Sexual Inversion in Women" in the Alienist and Neurologist, published in Saint Louis, Missouri.[13]
1995
Marc-Andre Raffalovich's article, which first appears in a French medical journal, then is translated the same year and published in the American Journal of Comparative Neurology, argues for the repression of sex between men and women, as well as sex between members of the same sex.[14]
1895, December
Havelock Ellis publishes "Sexual Inversion with an Analysis of Thirty-three New Cases" in the Medico-Legal Journal (NY).[15],
1896
A detailed medical case history involving the effects of castration on Guy T. Olmstead is sent to Havelock Ellis by Dr. E. S. Talbot of Chicago, and Ellis publishes an initial report in the British Journal of Mental Science.[16]
1899
Dr. John D. Quackenbos reports to the New Hampshire Medical Society on the use of hypnosis in the treatment of "sexual perversion", saying "It becomes my Christian manhood to act only as the vice-regent of the Almighty."[17]
1899
Dr. H. C. Sharp, physician at the Indiana Reformatory, first institutes a vasectomy program aimed at the "Sterilization of Degenerates" whom, he claims, become of "a more sunny disposition".[18]
Year? Day? Month?
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NOTES
- ↑ Lucy Ann Lobdell, Narrative of Lucy Ann Lobdell, the Female Hunter of Delaware and Sullivan Counties, N.Y. (N.Y.: Published for the Authoress, 1855; copy in Rare Book Room, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.) See also: http://www.outhistory.org/wiki/Lucy_Ann_Lobdell:_1829-1912#_note-0.
- ↑ Ivan Marki, “Leaves of Grass, 1855 edition.” In J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings, eds., Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998), reproduced online at: http://whitmanarchive.org/criticism/current/encyclopedia/entry_21.html
- ↑ Harold Aspiz. "Leaves of Grass, 1856 edition." In: J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings, eds., Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998), reproduced by permission online at http://www.whitmanarchive.org/criticism/current/encyclopedia/entry_22.html
- ↑ Gregory Eiselein. "Leaves of Grass, 1860 edition". In J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings, eds., Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998), reproduced by permission and online at: J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings, eds., Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998), reproduced by permission and online at: http://www.whitmanarchive.org/criticism/current/encyclopedia/entry_23.html
- ↑ Katz, Gay American History, pages 230-231, note ???, page ???
- ↑ P. M. Wise, "Case of Sexual Perversion," Alienist and Neurologist (St. Louis, Missouri.), vol. 4, no. I, pages. 87-91. See: Lucy Ann Lobdell: 1829-1912
- ↑ Katz, Gay American History, pages 227-228, note ???, page ???
- ↑ James G. Kiernan, Chicago Medical Recorder, vol. 3, pages 185-210. Discussed and cited in ,Jonathan Ned Katz, The Invention of Heterosexuality (NY: Dutton, 1995), note 1, page 270.
- ↑ Wikipedia (Poland) at: http://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_G._Kiernan
- ↑ Katz, Gay American History, p. 135, note ???, page ???.
- ↑ Katz, Gay American History, pages 231-232, note ???, page ???
- ↑ Katz, Gay American History, pages 140-143, note ???, page ???
- ↑ Katz, Gay American History, pages 139, note ???, page ???.
- ↑ Katz, Gay American History, page137-138, note ??? on page ?.
- ↑ Havelock Ellis, “Sexual Inversion with an Analysis of Thirty-three New Cases” Medico-legal Journal (New York), vol. 13, pages 255-267.
- ↑ Katz, Gay American History, pages 140-143, note ??? page ???.
- ↑ Katz, Gay American History, pages 144-145, note ???, page ???
- ↑ Katz, Gay American History, pages 143-144, note ???, page ???
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