Jun 9
Victorian drag portraits, anyone?
These photos (1, 2, 3) from the James Gardiner Collection are open access and available to view on JSTOR courtesy of the Wellcome Collection.
Dating from the 1850s to 1890s, the hand-colored portraits come from a Victorian album of 35 cartes de visite showing private and theatrical female impersonation. While many of these performances were intended as entertainment, the images also gesture toward gender nonconformity and queer expression.
See more from the album.
