[Transgender and Cross-Dressing][LGBTQ] D’Eon de Beaumont, Charlotte Geneviève. Autograph Note Signed, 8 March 1795, written and signed by one of the earliest recorded transgender women in Europe. The letter dates to D'Eon's time in England, after her diplomatic career, military service, and public gender transition made her one of the.....
[Transgender and Cross-Dressing][LGBTQ] D’Eon de Beaumont, Charlotte Geneviève. Autograph Letter Signed, 11 July 1796, written and signed by one of the earliest recorded transgender women in Europe in her feminine title, offering direct manuscript evidence of her self-identification as a woman with the female title and pronouns “La chevaliere d’Eon”.....
[Iran] [Art] Qajar School Lovers in Embrace gouache painting on paper, nineteenth century, represents the courtly aesthetic, erotic refinement, and dynastic visual language that defined Persian painting under Qajar rule. The composition situates a princely male figure and his adorned companion in intimate embrace, reinforcing themes of aristocratic leisure, romanticized.....
World War II photograph album belonging to an African American servicewoman, partially identified as Julia, associated with the historic 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion, known as the “Six Triple Eight,” the only predominantly Black, all-female Women's Army Corps unit deployed overseas during World War II. Commanded by Major Charity Adams.....
Hand painted Persian textile depicting Shah Abbas I, nineteenth century, a monumental example of Qajar period revivalist visual culture that reinterprets Safavid imperial iconography to articulate Persian kingship, martial virtue, and historical memory. Centered on one of the most mythologized rulers in Iranian history, the composition presents a continuous figural.....
[Mexico] [New Spain] Apodaca, Juan Ruiz de. Official proclamation dated July 5, 1821 announcing his resignation as Viceroy of New Spain during the final months of the Mexican War of Independence. Issued during a political crisis following the Plan of Iguala earlier that year, the document records the transfer of.....
[Women History][Women in Military] [Joan of Arc] Archive of 115 French postcards, ca. 1890–1930, documents the visual construction of Joan of Arc as armored military leader and nationalist symbol during the decades surrounding the Franco-Prussian War, the Third Republic, and the First World War. , documenting the military image and.....
Heroic biography woodblock print archive from the late Edo to early Meiji period, primarily featuring famed female samurai, Tomoe Gozen. Drawn from Eiyū Hyakunin Isshu ("One Hundred Heroic Figures with Poems"), the series combines portraits, concise biographies, and moralizing verse celebrating warriors, imperial loyalists, and legendary figures whose deeds formed.....
[Cross dressing] [Japan] [Kabuki] Japanese Kabuki onnagata portrait archive documenting male actors specializing in female roles, a codified theatrical practice central to Kabuki performance history since the early Edo period. Gender play in Kabuki was not only an aesthetic convention but also a cultural commentary as onnagata roles shaped ideals.....
[Medicine][Malaria] Ross, Ronald. Memoirs (1923), signed first edition reflecting on the creation of modern tropical medicine authored by the physician whose 1897 demonstration of the malarial parasite within the mosquito established vector transmission and transformed global public health. Published in 1923, two decades after Ross became the first British recipient.....
CHURCHILL, Winston. Wartime speech from 1940, in which he spoke the famous line "Never... was so much owed by so many to so few." 16 pages. 9" x 6" inches. This speech was delivered to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom by British prime minister Winston Churchill on.....
Japanese American 442nd Regimental Combat Team Wartime Photographs and Veterans Bulletins, Archive of 24 Items, Documenting Japanese American Military Service in Italy during World War II documenting the Japanese American 442nd Regimental Combat Team, centered on 18 original wartime photographs, circa 1944–1945, including photographs taken during the Italian campaign and.....
Arnaud de Ronsil, Georges. Mémoires de Chirurgie avec quelques remarques historiques sur l'état de la médecine & de la chirurgie en France & en Angleterre. Seconde Partie. London: Chez J. Nourse; Paris: Chez Desaint, 1768. First edition, Volume II. An important companion volume to Mémoires de Chirurgie Vol. I, which.....
Pancho Villa and División del Norte Mounted Troops of the Mexican Revolution. A vintage Extra Large silver gelatin photograph by Agustín Casasola measuring 16" x 20" . Striking and rare original photograph from the early years of the Mexican Revolution, depicting Pancho Villa and a detachment of his División del.....
[WAC][Korean War] Women’s Army Corps photo album, compiled by Sgt. Elizabeth Adamek of Cairnbrook, PA ca. early to mid 1950s, extensively recording enlisted women in post-1948 U.S. Army administrative operations at Camp Zama, Japan during the Korean War period. Elizabeth Adamek, later Elizabeth Adamek Pierce (1932–2016), served approximately twenty years.....
[Fashion][Art Deco] Art–Goût–Beauté. 1920s illustrated fashion periodicals emblematic of Parisian haute couture during the interwar decade when French designers were reaching international dominance in luxury fashion. Published in Paris from 1920 to 1933, the magazine disseminated the seasonal creations of leading couture houses to an elite readership. Art–Goût–Beauté integrated Art.....
Chinese Revolutionary era photo archive depicting public executions, military justice, and urban violence during the collapse of Qing imperial authority, circa 1900 to 1911, documenting how the machinery of state punishment evolved amid foreign intervention and domestic revolution. Made during the decade that followed the Boxer Rebellion and culminated in.....
Chisholm, Grace. Algebraic Group Theoretical Studies on Spherical Trigonometry. 1895. Scarce. Submitted in 1895 at the University of Göttingen, this dissertation marks the first doctorate awarded to a woman in any discipline by a German university. At a time when Prussian institutions largely excluded women from formal academic candidacy, Grace.....
[Japan Occupation][WWII] Primary-source photo album of United States military governance during the occupation of Japan, with particular emphasis on the enforcement of legal authority and the administration of war crimes proceedings under Allied control. Centered on the career of General Charles Sabin Ferrin in his capacity as Provost Marshal of.....
[Cross-Dressing][Women Military] Joan of Arc engraving archive depicting the French military leader and martyr Jeanne d’Arc in iconic images of battle, persecution, and faith, ca. 1770-1850s. The prints focus on Joan’s leadership during the Hundred Years’ War and on the gender-bending aspects of her identity and dress that contributed to.....
Large Women’s Army Corps photo album depicting the overseas enlistment of an American servicewoman stationed in Egypt during the transition from wartime operations to postwar occupation, 1946 to 1947. Pictured in combat training with rifles, at leisure, among identified companions, and both wartime facilities and tourist institutions, the album records.....
Empress Jingū woodblock print by Utagawa Kunisada, Edo period, depicting Japan's legendary fourteenth empress as a warrior sovereign. Kunisada drew repeatedly on celebrated figures from Japanese history and legend, translating literary and theatrical subjects into richly colored ukiyo e designs that circulated widely among Edo audiences. Jingū occupied a distinctive.....
Female martial heroism woodblock print from the final years of the Tokugawa shogunate, published in 1862 as part of Utagawa Toyokuni III's illustrated series Kokon Meifu Den (古今名婦伝), translated as "Famous Biographies of Women of Past and Present." The present sheet portrays Hangaku Gozen (板額女, more commonly 板額御前), the celebrated.....
U.S. Navy Mexican Patrol photo archive documenting natural history, provisioning, and wartime shipboard life aboard USS Rainier during World War I. Associated with Lieutenant junior grade Dr. Louis Henry Clerf, the vessel’s medical officer, the photographs record fish, a large shark, a deer, and a dog alongside the daily routines.....
[Cold War] [U.S. Defense] Official U.S. Army intelligence and doctrinal publications on Soviet equipment and artillery produced at key Cold War moments when Soviet conventional forces, missile technology, and weapons systems were undergoing rapid modernization. These publications illustrate how American military institutions trained analysts and officers to identify Warsaw Pact.....
