Crossing Boundaries: Portraits of a Transgender West

Downtown

When

Sept. 17, 2024–Jan. 5, 2025

Days Vary, Times vary

Cost: $0 - $14

Where

Oregon Historical Society

1200 SW Park Ave
Portland, OR 97205

The following description was submitted by the event organizer.

Curated in collaboration with historian Peter Boag, the Washington State Historical Society’s original exhibition Crossing Boundaries shares seldom-spotlighted historical narratives of transgender people in the West.

The exhibition spans from 1860 to 1940 and highlights the lives of specific individuals who did not conform to gender norms, connecting those histories to contemporary aspects of today’s LGBTQ+ community. Among those featured are Harry Allen, a heartbreaker who was wanted by the police; Dr. Alan Hart, a medical doctor and Northwest novelist; and the mysterious Mrs. Nash, a laundress to the famed Seventh Cavalry (and an officer’s wife).

While today, you may think of the people represented in the exhibition as “transgender,” that term did not exist during their lifetimes. Because written documentation is sparse, it has sometimes been assumed that trans people did not exist before the modern era; however, transgender people have existed in the West for thousands of years. Many Native cultures recognize three, four, or more genders. These individuals were the public face of the LGBTQ+ community at the turn of the twentieth-century. They were the ones who appeared in the press (for reasons elaborated in the exhibition) and thus were the most widely recognized, identified, and accessible examples of LGBTQ+ identities during the late 1800s and early 1900s.

Crossing Boundaries also considers how westward migration provided opportunities for self-expression and fulfillment. As they traversed unfamiliar territory, these individuals crossed both physical boundaries and the perceptual boundaries of their earlier lives.

As with other pioneering stories, this is a history of obstacles and fear, bravery and triumphs. Through the themes of visibility, identify, acceptance, and history, visitors will learn more about the history of gender, identity, and changing cultural perceptions in the West.