A 1815 portrait of the acclaimed actress Miss Walstein – did the artist realise that his subject had been born a man?
human interest
1833: The extraordinary life and shocking death of the actor Eliza Edwards aka Miss Lavinia Walstein
After a mostly illustrious career in Ireland and England appearing as Lavinia Walstein, actress Eliza Edwards’ star waned.
Cross-dressing: “Two females would have excited suspicion”
Another in the series about transsexuals and cross-dressing. Two women disguise themselves as a couple in order to steal cattle as two women driving through the countryside would have looked dodgy. A singular circumstance occurred at the Devon gaol on Sunday last. In the course of that day two persons, the one in male, the […]
Transvestism, 1792: Warrington girl enlists and is discovered
A young female, from the neighbourhood of Warrington, last week applied to a Recruiting Serjeant in Chester and voluntarily offered herself to serve his Majesty : – Being habited in male attire, suspicion slept, and the corporal eagerly cross’d her palm with the royal profile, set in silver; – being initiated – a barber was […]
Trans in the newspaper archives: 1829
Lately I have been digging out stories about cross-dressers and trans people from the British Newspaper Archive and tweeting them. It’s become a little bit of a series so I’ll add them here on this website too. There have been some corkers and, as you might imagine, some of the stories have shown a lack […]
Elopement in Georgian England: Catherine Grierson and Thomas Thomasson (1781)
1781: A young lady elopes from her boarding school. The tale of Catherine Grierson and Thomas Thomasson. The case ends up in court.