‘Queer heritage is everywhere; it is embedded in buildings and landscapes all around us’. [1] Yet, when it comes to the history of lesbian, or queer women in London, discussions are focused one a few key figures including Radclyffe Hall, Virginia Woolf and Vernon Lee.
To help you uncover stories of lesbians ‘hidden’ in archives or museums, here are a few tips to consider before starting your (re)search.
Why are there so few historic accounts on lesbian women?
Historic sources often focus on the lives of middle-class people, and any relating materials are frequently not catalogued as such.[2][3] To learn about the lives of working-class people, medical and criminal records are a valuable source to discover how the UK government has interacted with LGBTQ+ communities in the past to ‘suppress and regulate sexuality and gender’.[4][5] However, even though in 1921 it was discussed in Parliament to criminalise ‘gross indecency’ between women, lesbianism was never criminalised in the UK.[6] Unmarried women living together, were accepted as a social and economic necessity, making it even harder to identify what you should be looking for.[7]
Where to start your journey?
To uncover aspects of lesbian life during the 18th and 19th century you can look at letters, photographs and diaries of these periods.[8] It is important to keep in mind that women of the period you are researching may not have identified as lesbian, as sexuality is a concept that changes over time.
Looking at more recent histories (20th century, 21st century), records relating to gay campaigning make a great start. You could expand your research by looking at archives that collect records relating to the Women’s Liberation Movement (1960’s and 1970’s) or the Greenham Common Women’s Peace Camp.[9]
A key aspect to consider in your search is language. As mentioned before, concepts and terms relating to gender identity and sexuality have considerably changed over time, and many terms used in the past are now considered offensive.[10] Some historic terms relating to sexuality to consider in your research are: ‘deviant’, ‘queer’, ‘sapphism’, ‘immoral’, ‘invert’, ‘tribade’, ‘females in male attire’, ‘cross-dressing’, ‘gross indecency’, ‘disorderly house’, ‘obscenity’, ‘unnatural offences’.[11]
Some great resources to dive into:
The Glasgow Women’s Library houses Lesbian Archive. The archive houses documents on the lives of lesbian and queer women from the early 19th century until today. Although they are based in Glasgow, the archive has an amazing online collection.
Credit: Bishopsgate Institute, Photography by Pam Isherwood and Brenda Prince
The Bishopsgate Institute holds one of the most extensive collections on LGBTQ+ history in the UK, including papers by the the LGBT+ Helpline Switchboard, the Stonewall Archive, the Museum of Transology, the The Lesbian and Gay Newsmedia Archive.
The Women’s Library collection at the London School of Economics and Science focuses on campaigns for women’s equality and rights, beginning with the suffrage movement until today. The collection covers rare books, banners, and documents from the late 19th century to present day.
The National Archives are the official archive for the UK government. To make their records more accessible they provided an extensive guide on how to research public sector records for LGBTQ+ histories.
London Metropolitan Archives holds a vast range of documents, including parish and court records, films, Oral Histories, maps and books. They also provide a home for The rukus! Black Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Cultural Archive, which documents the ‘lived experience’ of the Black LGBT+ community in London and the UK.
The Gay News Archive Project is another great online resource that tells the story of LGBTQ+ rights in the UK during the 1970s. This area is often overlooked due to the Sexual Offences Act 1967, which decriminalised homosexual acts between men over 21. However, during this era police harassment was the norm, and LGBTQ+ people “were often entrapped and arrested for the nebulous offence of ‘obstruction’ for attempting to go into or out of gay-friendly pubs”.[12]
Oral histories of love, identity and activism is a wonderful collection of Oral Histories discovers the lives of LGBTQ+ people during the course of the last century.
The Wellcome Library and Collection connects science, medicine, life and art, hold a vast collection on materials on LGBTQ+ lives, including my beloved Back pocket guide to gay & lesbian London which lists all of London’s gay bars, hotels, shops, cafés and restaurants during the 90s!
[1] ‘Pride of Place: England’s LGBTQ Heritage | Historic England’ <http://historicengland.org.uk/research/inclusive-heritage/lgbtq-heritage-project/> [accessed 10 June 2020]. [2] Amy K. Levin, Gender, Sexuality and Museums: A Routledge Reader (Routledge, 2010), p.164. [3] ‘Pride of Place’ [4] ‘Pride of Place’. [5] The National Archives, ‘The National Archives - Homepage’, The National Archives <https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/help-with-your-research/research-guides/gay-lesbian-history/> [accessed 11 September 2019]. [6] ‘Pride of Place’ [7] Ina Zweiniger-Bargielowska, Women in Twentieth-Century Britain: Social, Cultural and Political Change (Routledge, 2014), p.60. [8] ‘Known Homosexuals - Lesbian History In The Archives | Culture24’ <https://www.culture24.org.uk/history-and-heritage/tra43813> [accessed 16 June 2020]. [9] ‘Known Homosexuals - Lesbian History In The Archives | Culture24’. [10] Archives. [11] Archives. [12] ‘About This Project – Gay News Archive Project’ <http://gaynews.fighting-words.co.uk/about-this-project/> [accessed 10 June 2020].