Resource Spotlight: Digital Transgender Archive

 To close out Transgender History Month, I wanted to highlight one of the trans historical resources available on the internet today. 

The Digital Transgender Archive is an international collaboration among dozens of colleges, universities, nonprofit organizations, public libraries, and private collections. Their mission is to increase the accessibility of transgender history by providing an online hub for digitized historical materials, born-digital materials, and information on archival holdings throughout the world. Their focus is on pre-2000 archival materials. There are currently over ninety institutions participating.

You can search or browse the collections and they also have a DTA Starter's Guide that provides starting points such as prominent people, controversies, and resources beyond the United States. The Archive also has learning resources including a glossary, a guide to global terms used to describe gender nonconforming practices in various cultures, teaching tools, and multimedia resources. In the learning section there are also articles discussing 'Pre-Colonial Gender Expression and Identity in “North America” and "LGB and/or T History."

If you don't have something in particular to search for, I've found that browsing the collections is great fun. While browsing the topics there was something I noticed right away as a librarian that is important to keep in mind. With so many institutions and people involved in the cataloging of materials, there does not appear to be one controlled vocabulary. This means, for example, you may find items about trans men tagged as FtMs, Trans men, Transmasculine people, Transmasculinity, Assigned female at birth, etc. 

 One relevant topic I found by browsing was Transgender authors. Here there are audio and video files of poetry performances, oral histories and interviews, and articles about trans authors. While browsing this topic I found a 1999 book review of Leslie Feinberg's Transgender Warriors in the inaugural issue of "Triple Echo" ("Canada's independent trans voice!"). The review was mixed, and it was fascinating to see a near contemporaneous take on this classic book. 

 In the current political and social climate, reclaiming our history is more important than ever. The more we understand our past, the better we are able to change our future in positive ways. The Digital Transgender Archive provides a doorway into that past. Check it out.

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