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What we do know is that travesty or an actor dressed to present as the gender not aligned with their birth sex was an essential part of the theatre. It was a distinguishing feature of most of the popular genres--

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pantomime, burlesque, and later, in the century, musical comedy. Male and female impersonators were, of course, also a really popular feature in the music hall stage. What's difficult to ascertain is what connection

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there might have been between transvestism on the stage and the personal lives of performers. Most performers didn't leave much trace in the historical record, say,

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for such as a name on a playbill or their name in the caption on a cabinet photograph, and often the stage name was an alias. And so if you search for their stage name

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in a newspaper database or in a legal archive, try to find more about their personal lives, you probably won't come up with much information. We do know the legal names of some of the biggest

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stars of the period, but they only represent a small portion of the profession. Most of the legal names of performers that we can find on playbills have been

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forgotten, lost to history. Further, adding to the difficulty of researching LGBT lives in the 19th century theatre is that our vocabulary for talking about gender and sexuality was not used back

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in the 19th century. For example, the term transvestite to refer to taking on the clothes of the gender not aligned with your apparent birth sex.

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That term was only coined in the early 20th century, and the term transsexual or transgender to refer to an identity category emerged even later in the century. The term homosexual did start appearing in English towards

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the end of the 19th-century, but this was mostly in scientific texts. And so, in sum, if you went into any primary source database and searched for, for example, theatre and homosexual,

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you probably will come empty-handed if you're looking for sources from before the 20th century. Unless, of course, you happen to be in a primary source database specialising in scientific or medical texts.

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However, what we do know is that in the UK at least, gender nonconformity and same-sex attraction were linked at the conceptual level, at least in the context of people who are born male.

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This connection can be seen in the pejorative, for example, which is still in use, as well as some terms that are no longer in use, such as Marjorie and Mary Ann.

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One of the biggest scandals in 19th-century Britain was the arrest of Ernest Bolton and Frederick Park. They were arrested outside the Strand Theatre for wearing women's clothes at the Theatre.

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But they were also known for being female impersonators on the provincial Theatre circuit. I don't think that their lives or their scandal are represented in this collection,

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but that scandal does provide important context, I think, for interpreting the materials that are here. Even though they were eventually acquitted of the charge of conspiring to commit sodomy,

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the surviving evidence is pretty conclusive that their erotic relationships were with men. It is also likely that a significant number of aspiring or unknown female impersonators were either gender

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non-conforming and or same-sex attracted, but their professional contributions have largely been forgotten to history. Obviously, the one Theatre practitioner

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who we know without a doubt was same-sex attracted was, of course, the playwright Oscar Wilde, who was arrested and eventually convicted and imprisoned for gross indecency, which refers to any homosexual contact

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between men. If you read the trial transcripts, you'll learn that several of the young men with whom Wilde had been intimate were somehow vaguely connected with the music

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hall stage. Chief among these is Frederick Atkins, who described himself as a musical singer. Although it's not clear if his specialty was female

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impersonation. Wilde also referred to the young man whom he met at the procurer Alfred Taylor's rooms as singers.

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And Alfred Taylor himself was known to occasionally go in public in women's clothes, although it's not known what his relationship to the Theatre as a professional was.

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There was one question by the prosecution in the trial transcript that refers to Taylor as a music hall artiste. But what context they have in mind when they ask that question it's not

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exactly clear to biographies, I don't think. And so, consequently, what the stage names of some of the young men who more directly represented the urban, homosexual, and gender

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non-conforming subculture with whom Wilde occasionally dallied with, they've basically been forgotten to history. And so, therefore, even the Wilde is easy to find in these collections.

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What kind of cultural contributions made by these other people with whom he consorted? They are basically invisible in the collection until more recovery work is done.

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However, any playbill or programme that lists a female character's name being played by an actor with a traditionally male name that should invite curiosity or scrutiny about what the personal life of that actor might have been.

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And so, for example, you have a 1922 playbill for the pantomime from Adelaide that lists a male performer playing a female role. And so even though some or even most,

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maybe I would say of the actors known for playing pantomime dames in the early 20th century were apparently heterosexual, this is not necessarily true for some of the more forgotten names as well as potentially performers later in the 20th

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century. Researching the gender nonconformity or same-sex intimacies of those born female is, in some ways, both more challenging as well as more promising.

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The reason why it's more challenging is that same-sex intimacy between women wasn't criminalised in the way that same-sex intimacy between men were.

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And so consequently, you don't get in the legal archives names like Oscar Wilde and the young musical artist with whom he consorted. Further sort of adding to the difficulty of researching

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same-sex intimacy among women in any context in 19th century Britain is the fact that there wasn't really a coherent, developed cultural understanding that gender nonconformity among women or attraction among women was pathologized in the way that

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you get with terms like Mary Ann. However, the magnitude of the stardom of two female actors from the period, Charlotte Cushman and Sarah Bernhardt, means that we know a good deal about their personal lives,

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especially as Bernhardt flaunted her eccentricities. Biographers generally describe Charlotte Cushman as a lesbian, or at least as exclusively same-sex-oriented in her relationships, even if they

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don't use the term lesbian, because that could be seen as anachronistic. And we can even see the kind of evidence that biographers would use to make that claim here

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in the NTS collection. So, for example, there's a letter sent to a Miss Gordon that refers to a gathering of musical friends that will include a Miss Phillips.

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And this letter gives you some sense of just how homosocial her circle was. For Bernhardt, biographers have interpreted her relationship with painter Louise Abbéma as romantic.

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Fortunately, again, as I said, because they were such huge stars, a lot of material survives, and Bernhardt and Cushman are both pretty well represented in these collections,

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much more so than the female impersonators who a lot of their professional names have been forgotten or invisible by contrast. Such materials are thus available to be interpreted

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not only for what they reveal about these actors' personal lives potentially but also what they reveal or suggest about how these women presented themselves to the public in the roles that they chose

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and how they were photographed, especially because both Cushman and Bernhardt had significant role over their own careers. So, for example, in this photograph of Cushman,

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you might notice the widow-like veil. And for me, as someone who studies 19th-century gender, that veil makes her look every bit like the respectable matron. Only one female practitioner faced the scandal, which

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Wilde did for his sexuality. In 1918, Canadian dancer Maud Allan was sued for libel after a British newspaper charged her with leading a cult of the clitoris

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or a lesbian cabal, basically. Allan was most known for interpreting the biblical role of Salome. And so here, with Maud Allan, we see

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lesbianism being associated with femme fatales rather than with male impersonation. Her career never recovered from the lawsuit, but her relationships with women continued.

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There is a lot of evidence out there that shows that theatergoing had become a significant subcultural practise among homosexual and or gender non-conforming male people during the 19th century, especially the second half

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of the 19th century. However, the evidence generally isn't found in the kinds of materials that you'll be able to access through this particular collection.

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Instead, that evidence is found in legal archives, in newspaper databases, in private diaries and correspondences, and in the published works that now we basically interpret as smut.

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However, if you're familiar with this evidence, then a lot of the material available in the NTS collection can start to appear with a kind of queer resonance around it. For example, the Lyceum Theatre is well represented in this

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collection because as the premier house for staging Shakespeare in the second half of the 19th century. Its materials were subsequently acquired, I believe, by the Royal Shakespeare

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Company, whose archives are available through NTS. The Lyceum Saloon was also a really popular meeting spot for same-sex attracted men. Looking at that material, you might ask what kind

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of theatrical fare might have attracted that demographic to the Lyceum rather than to other theatres. Other popular meeting spots in London include the Strand Theatre and the Gaiety Theatre.

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Both theatres were associated with burlesque, and materials relating to the gaiety are available in this collection through materials connected with John Hollingshead, who was the manager for much of its popular

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reign, as well as the actress Nellie Farren. In New York City, the Theatre districts around Union Square and the Bowery were also cruising areas. Important context here is the commercialization of leisure

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over the course of the 19th century. The second half of the 19th century really saw neighbourhoods like SoHo in London's west end become spaces where you could buy pleasure, whether through shopping,

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through dining out at restaurants, or through, of course, going to the Theatre. And this had two consequences. The first consequence was an intensification

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of the general association of Theatre districts with licentiousness. For example, social structures were seen as a little looser in places like SoHo or Union

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Square. More tangibly, theatres themselves became places of consumer pleasure where you could lounge in an upholstered saloon, sipping spirits, and conversing with strangers.

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These saloons, refreshment rooms, and promenades became spaces where same-sex attracted men could, for example, meet new partners where they could, socialise with long-term partners

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or long-standing friends, and they could also display signs of gender nonconformity with relatively little reprisal. Such meeting spaces started cropping up in the 18th century

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during the first wave of urbanisation. But it was the Theatre districts of the 19th century where you saw the site of a coherent commercial homosexual subculture really emerge in the way that SoHo, for example,

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is still the gay neighbourhood in London. And then Union Square is close to Greenwich village in New York City, which is still the gay neighbourhood in New York City. So there's literally a direct line of connection between

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19th-century theatres and the contemporary gay neighbourhood. Yes, there absolutely were stars with a queer following during the 19th century. The 19th century was really the birth of the Diva,

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the larger-than-life female star who enthralled worshippers, in part because she channelled collective aspirations for defying social conventions. The biggest star of the 19th century in both Britain

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and America was also the woman who I see as really the first gay icon, Ellen Terry. In fact, I like to think of Ellen Terry, actually, as the Victorian Cate Blanchett.

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In addition to being recognised as the greatest female actor of her generation, at least in the English-speaking world, she also had a significant queer following among both male fans as well as female fans.

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Wilde adored her, and I suspect that the Lyceum wouldn't have been such a popular homosexual meeting spot if its only star was Henry Irving. She was also hugely popular with young women

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who, by this time in history, were called matinee girls. And I think we can see an example of this in the NTS collection with an article about Terry published by the university magazine by an author named Agnes Platt.

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And Platt begins by writing her charm does not lie in the gift of personal beauty for classical beauty, she does not possess, but rather a piquant irregularity which tantalises and appeals by turns.

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Though I'm not sure of the exact provenance, those sketches of Terry in the RSC archives could very well be an example of early fan art. Obviously, not all of the girls who bombarded Terry

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with gifts and affection were same-sex attracted, but some were. In 1899, a woman named Christabel Marshall sent terry a poem expressing her passion for the actress.

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Marshall was eventually invited on tour and integrated herself into the Terry household. She also had a strong sense of lesbian identity before that concept fully emerged in British culture,

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and her longest relationship was actually with Terry's daughter, Edith Craig. Theirs was a creative partnership as well, with Marshall as the writer and Edith Craig

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as a really important and influential designer, particularly costume designer. If you look at photos of Terry, I think it's pretty clear that you can see why she

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boasted so much queer appeal. As that essay from Agnes Platt indicates, she was seen as not being conventionally beautiful. Instead, her face was extraordinarily handsome.

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This, combined with her height, lent itself to her doing well in Shakespearean roles, where she would have to cross-dress for part of the play, such as playing Portia in Merchant in Venice or Viola in 12th Night.

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She was also divorced for adultery. She had two illegitimate children, and she also became associated with aestheticism and artistic movement that certainly had queer

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adherents, such as Oscar Wilde. Finally, the women she played were also vivacious, flirty, and modern while staying just on the side of being harlots. And so they never became fallen women

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who are punished for their sexuality. Terry's peers, Helena Modjeska and Sarah Bernhardt, were also worshipped by Wilde. But burlesque and musical comedy stars

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also attracted queer audiences. At the end of the century, young men flocked to musical comedy, and the biggest star of the musical comedy stage was Marie Tempest.

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In fact, one male sex worker in early 20th century Glasgow took the alias Marie Santoy, which is possibly a portmanteau of Marie Tempest's first name, and Santoy, a star vehicle for Tempest's career.

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It's also possible that male matinee idols had their male admirers. Wilde again gives us some cause for speculation. Wilde had strong attachments to Kyrle Bellew, as well as Norman

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Forbes-Robertson and both were kind of effeminately handsome men who were known for having many female admirers, sending them postcards and asking for their autograph.