Washington, D.C.
Edith Hamilton home
2448 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W.
For the last 20 years of her life, classical scholar Edith Hamilton (1867-1963) lived at this address, which is near Rock Creek Park. A Latin and Greek major at Bryn Mawr College, Hamilton became the popular headmistress of Bryn Mawr Preparatory School for Girls, a girls’ academy in Baltimore, [...]
Archive for June, 2009
The Hamilton Way
Posted in District of Columbia, academics/professors, writers on June 30, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Happy Anniversary Weekend!
Posted in New York, activists, gay and lesbian on June 26, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
New York, N.Y.
Stonewall Inn
51-53 Christopher Street
This weekend marks a historic event in lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender history: the 40th anniversary of the riots at the Stonewall Inn in New York City, a popular gay bar and hangout in the late 1960s, a place to meet friends and lovers. But at a time when homosexuality [...]
The Height of Camp
Posted in New York, gay and lesbian, resorts on June 23, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Cherry Grove (Fire Island), N.Y.
The Belvedere
Bay View Walk
In 1956, set designer and graphic artist John Eberhardt visited Fire Island for the first time and fell in love with the barrier island just a few hours from New York City. He bought a plot of land and with his partner, Joe Fiorentino, [...]
A Grave Matter
Posted in Massachusetts, actors, sculptors on June 22, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Cambridge, Mass.
Mt. Auburn Cemetery
580 Mount Auburn Street
A guide map is available at the entrance to this historic cemetery, which will steer you to the many famous historical figures buried here. Among them, of course, are lesbians and women-identified women. You can visit the grave of actress Charlotte Cushman (who made a dashing cross-dressed Romeo in [...]
“…god and goddess melted into one”
Posted in California, actors, playwrights on June 20, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Santa Monica, Calif.
Greta Garbo/Mercedes de Acosta meeting place
165 Mabery Road
In 1931, the young Swedish film sensation Greta Garbo met and fell for Mercedes de Acosta, a dramatic-looking writer with pale skin and raven black hair who habitually sported white flannel trousers, silk shirts, berets, and boyish haircuts. Both women had been invited to tea at [...]
Come Back, William Inge
Posted in gay and lesbian, playwrights on June 18, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Independence, Kansas
William Inge Center for the Arts
Independence Community College
1057 W. College Avenue
Included in this center’s collections are books, tapes, and records from the private cache of playwright William Inge (1913-1973), who attended college here and gave his original manuscripts to the school in 1969. Inge is best known for four successful Broadway plays that were [...]
Howard’s Intrepid Dean
Posted in academics/professors, gay and lesbian on June 16, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Washington, D.C.
Lucy Diggs Slowe window
Howard University chapel
Sixth Street &
Howard Place, N.W.
Lucy Diggs Slowe (1883-1937) was the first dean of women at Howard University, a position she held from 1922 until her death. A window in the university chapel (see above) honors her memory. As dean, Slowe worked for empowerment of women, urging female students [...]
Casting a Vote
Posted in gay and lesbian on June 14, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Soquel, Calif.
Soquel Firehouse
4747 Soquel Drive
A plaque at this location honors the memory of Charlotte “Charley” Parkhurst (1812-1879), a passing woman. As a young girl, Charlotte escaped from an orphanage in the East by donning boys’ clothing and learning how to drive a six-horse team. Heading west, Parkhurst made a living as a stagecoach driver (see [...]
A Patient Named “H”
Posted in Oregon, physicians, transgender on June 10, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Portland, Ore.
Dr. J. Allen Gilbert office
610 SW Alder Street, 7th floor
In 1918, a young woman named Alberta Lucille Hart, who had graduated from Albany Colleg (now Lewis & Clark University) the University of Oregon Medical College, consulted a psychiatrist named Dr. J. Allen Gilbert in this office building about the possibility of surgery to become [...]
Billie’s Baltimore
Posted in Maryland, New York, gay and lesbian, singers/performers on June 8, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Baltimore, Md.
Billie Holiday home
219 South Durham Street
Billie Holiday (1915-1959) had a rough childhood. As a young girl named Eleanora Fagan, she cut school so often she was sent to live at the House of the Good Shepherd, a home for “colored girls” run by the Little Sisters of the Poor (Claverton Road and Franklin Street). [...]
