Mysteries to Solve: Historical Detective Work You Can Do

Researchers have discovered fascinating documents of LGBTQ and heterosexual history about which many mysteries remain. Or perhaps you have some clues to wonderful LGBTQ history that you'd like to research. Please help OutHistory solve these mysteries, and present your new, original finds on the site.

OutHistory will be adding to this list of mysteries to solve, so check back here for further clues.

Last edited September 6, 2011, 9:52 am EST

OPEN ENTRY: This entry is open to collaborative creation by anyone with evidence, citations, and analysis to share, so no particular, named creator is responsible for the accuracy and cogency of its content. Please use this entry's Comment section at the bottom of the page to suggest improvements about which you are unsure. Thanks.

Legal Case Transcripts

Jonathan Ned Katz's Love Stories discusses many nineteenth-century sodomy, buggery, and crime against nature cases appealed to the highest state courts. His research showed that, in regard to the two earliest cases, the actual trial transcripts of these cases could be obtained from state legal archives. The transcripts of these cases sometimes reveal more details than the brief, published accounts available on LEXUS or other legal databases. So researching these cases and writing for these transcripts should reveal important new details of of LGBTQ and heterosexual history. OutHistory would like to reproduce or transcribe all the court transcripts that can be found. See Legal Cases Appealed: January 1, 1800-December 31, 1899 and Timeline: Published U.S. State Appeals Case Reports, 1800-1899

Lind, Earl (Ralph Werther/Jennie June) (pseudonyms)

Who was the man who called himself "Earl Lind," "Ralph Werther" and "Jennie June"? The author of two autobiographies provides so many details about his life, it should be possible to discover his true identity, and this should lead to many insights about transgender American history in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. Search for the information about Lind/Werther/June on OutHistory.org

Sperry, Almeda

Read Sperry's love letters to Emma Goldman and see if you can find more biographical information about Sperry, her published writings, and especially a photo. See: Almeda Sperry to Emma Goldman: 1912

Stoddard, Charles Warren

Listing and studying all the social networking connections of the nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century journalist Charles Warren Stoddard should provide many leads to LGBTQ history in his time.

Create Local LGBTQ History Chronologies

OutHistory.org contains lots of previously uncollected information about the history of villages, towns, cities, counties, and states. Research and add your community's local LGBTQ history to the site. See what others have done and follow their example.