blog post written by Peggy Alexander, Curator -  Performing Arts Library Special Collections

In the Library Special Collections Sheet Music Collection, which consists of approximately 100,000 pieces of popular American music, you can find pieces of sheet music that feature images of very popular and proper women who made their living performing as men on the British music hall and American vaudeville stages.

These publications date from the late 19^th century through the early 20^th century, as such performances declined in popularity when faced with the competition of talking motion pictures.

Today’s use of the term drag leads the viewer to misunderstanding the goals of these early cross-dressing women. Today their performances are understood as challenges to the traditional understanding of sex and gender. These performances were simply seen as one type among many that portrayed some sort of illusion or magic.

Some of these female male impersonators who can be found in the collection are: Claire Romaine (known as London’s Pet Boy), Grace Leonard, Hetty King (real name Winifred Emms), Florence Tempest, and Vesta Tilley (real name Matilda Alice Powles).

By Peggy Alexander, Curator of Performing Arts