Last night the Library Company, the Historical Society of Pennsylvania and the William Way Center, were excited to welcome historian, Jen Manion speaking about her research on transgender and gender-nonconforming people in early America, or the “T” in LGBT. 

This program is part of #PastPresentPride, a free two-part lecture series exploring sexual identity in literature and media, and the history of transgender and gender-nonconforming people, hosted by the Library Company of Philadelphia and the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.

Happy 161st birthday, Oscar Wilde! Wilde was born in Dublin, Ireland on this day in 1854. In 1882, Wilde embarked on a lecture tour of Canada and the United States. His visit markedly influenced the American market. As Library Company Curator of Women’s History, Connie King wrote, “…almost immediately images of sunflowers abounded in decorative arts, and American aesthetes soon adopted Wilde’s slogan ‘art for art’s sake.’” 

An example of this can be seen in the above trade card, which advertises “The ‘Freshest’ AEsthetic style”. This trade card was featured in our 2014 exhibition, “That’s So Gay”, curated by Connie King. The online version of “That’s So Gay” was launched this fall, and can be found here: http://www.librarycompany.org/gayatlcp/

Read more about Oscar Wilde here:  http://www.librarycompany.org/gayatlcp/section5.html