Larissa Borck via Europeana Common Culture (Web)

„‘Every man can learn the art of being a beautiful woman,’ said John Lind, one of the most successful female impersonators in the early 20th century. He became one of Sweden’s most famous stars in international show business, playing effortlessly with society’s norms about gender and sex.

Coming from a small town in Sweden, John Lind advanced to a regular guest on stages across the world, from the Moulin Rouge in Paris and the Colosseum in London to the Broadway in New York. This career in the performing arts made him – born as John Lindström in Vissefjärda in 1877 – an early 20th century star, touring across Europe, the Americas and Africa. John Lind was attracted by standing on the stage and performing for his audience for his entire life.

Growing up and going to school in Karlskrona, he organised and took part in theatre plays. His group soon earned some money with entrance fees. When a theatre director travelled through Karlskrona, she saw him perform and recommended him to the Tivoli in Stockholm. When he left Karlskrona, at the age of 17, the local newspaper wrote: ‘Already as a young boy, L. has shown great attraction to the theatre and has performed successfully with several performances. […] Lindström is now planning to travel to the capital to become a stage artist, a career for which he seems to have a natural talent and invincible passion.’“ Read more … (Web)

Europeana (Web)

Two years ago writer and journalist Neil McKenna introduced an album of Victorian-era photographs in a short weblog entry on Europeana (Web).

This extraordinary album is part of the James Gardiner Collection. On Europeana you can see all leaves of the album – they are completely available online here. The release  took place on the anniversary of the Stonewall riots, the highlight of LGBT+’s 2018 proud month (Web).

The James Gardiner Collectionis part of the rich queer heritage of the Wellcome Collection (Web).

James Gardiner is a researcher and author who specializes in collecting historical photographs depicting what he calls ‘gay life’.

In an interview – already in 1997 – for „Intependend“ he said the following: „Seeing is believing. Written history can document and argue, fiction can evoke and describe, artists can give us vivid re-interpretations; but only the camera can provide us with proof. More than 150 years of proof that, whatever the official history books may say, whatever your mother told you, whatever the tabloids pedalled as the truth either in 1895 or 1995, we were there. Flirting, posing, kissing, dragging up, stripping off, holding hands, getting caught and (more often) getting away with it.

What makes a photograph gay? How can you have a photographic history of something that was, until very recently, something to hide, not photograph? …“ Read more (Web).