The history of transgender people in the West is an incomplete one, marked by sensational popular accounts and prejudice. Had these distorted portraits of transgender people not become visible, however, little might be known about them at all. Documentation of queer people’s lives is often neglected, intentionally overlooked, or destroyed after their deaths. Without extensive written documentation, it is easy to assume that trans people did not exist in significant numbers prior to the modern era. This is not true.

Now on view at the Oregon Historical Society, Crossing Boundaries: Portraits of a Transgender West shares stories of individuals who moved West and changed their activities, clothing, and behaviors to lead lives that were better aligned with their sense of self. On view in downtown Portland from September 6, 2024, through January 5, 2025, Crossing Boundaries is a powerful traveling exhibition created by the Washington State Historical Society in collaboration with Dr. Peter Boag, a historian, author, and educator at Washington State University–Vancouver.

The exhibition highlights the lives of specific individuals who did not conform to the gender norms of the turn of the twentieth century, connecting their stories to aspects of today’s LGBTQ+ community. These individuals were the public face of the LGBTQ+ community; they were the ones who appeared in the press (for reasons elaborated in the exhibition) and thus were the most widely recognized and accessible examples of LGBTQ+ identities during the late 1800s and early 1900s. While today we might think of the people represented in the exhibition as “transgender,” that term did not exist during their lifetimes.

Because written documentation is sparse, it has sometimes been assumed that trans people did not exist prior to the modern era; however, transgender people have existed in the West for thousands of years. Many Native cultures recognized three, four, or more genders. 

“One of the challenges in organizing this exhibition was locating stories of transgender people in newspaper, library, and photographic archives,” said Gwen Whiting, lead exhibitions curator at the Washington State History Museum. “While there were many people who transitioned in the West, often we found that those stories had been lost, either through intentional erasure by communities or family members, or because the individuals left few personal accounts and belongings behind. For example, Dr. Alan Hart requested that all personal correspondence and documents be burned upon his death.”

Alan L. Hart was an Oregon physician, researcher, and writer and one of the first female-to-male transgender persons to undergo a hysterectomy in the United States and live the remainder of his life as a man. Though he desired to live his life quietly, he frequently had to leave jobs and homes for fear of discrimination when he was recognized and exposed. Despite a life of challenges, Hart contributed greatly to the medical field, notably to tuberculosis research. He helped to contain the spread of the disease in both the Pacific Northwest and Connecticut, and programs based on Hart’s studies saved thousands of lives.

Sensationalism also played a role in which stories were preserved, resulting in uneven collecting of trans history by museums, researchers, and academic institutions. Some of the items on view in Crossing Boundaries are authentic to the subjects’ stories, but many of them are representative items that provide historical context. For example, a shimmering relic of 1920s Portland is a dress from OHS’s museum collection displayed as an example of female-presenting clothing from the 1920s.

Acceptance is also a central theme in this exhibition. All of the people featured struggled with finding contemporary acceptance, just as many queer people struggle today. However, even though sensational press accounts and negative public opinion made this difficult, there were some transgender individuals who found a place in communities in the West. For many of them, acceptance lasted for long periods of time, even when others around them held strong suspicions about their assigned genders.

The Oregon Historical Society’s museum is open daily in downtown Portland, from 10am to 5pm Monday through Saturday and 12pm to 5pm on Sunday. Admission is free every day for youth 17 and under, OHS members, and residents of Multnomah County. Learn more and plan your visit at ohs.org/visit.