A recording of this event is available on YouTube.

Join Rangers Meaghan Michel and Kate Potter of the Longfellow House-Washington’s Headquarters National Historic Site for an exploration of queer literature from the 19th century.

Michel and Potter will discuss the coded queer references and themes that authors used throughout the 19th century. The talk will dive into the poetry and prose of authors ranging from Oscar Wilde and Walt Whitman to Emily Dickinson and Sarah Orne Jewett. How did the authors’ sexual orientations shape their works, and how did those works inspire others?

Links, resources, and further readings shared in the presentation, chat, and Q&A included:

• Moby Dick, Herman Melville
• CALAMUS., Walt Whitman
• The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde
• The Hermaphrodite, Julia Ward Howe
• Wild nights - Wild nights! (269), Emily Dickinson
• The Country of the Pointed Firs, Sarah Orne Jewett
• Kavanagh, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
• The Blithedale Romance, Nathaniel Hawthorne
• Joseph and His Friend, Bayard Taylor
• Roderick Hudson; The Bostonians Henry James
• Yellow Clover: A Book of Remembrance Katherine Lee Bates
• More Poems, A.E. Housman
• The Only Wonderful Things: The Creative Partnership of Willa Cather and Edith Lewis, Melissa J. Homestead (forthcoming)
• Black on Both Sides: A Racial History of Trans Identity, C. Riley Snorton

About the speakers

Meaghan Michel has worked at Longfellow House-Washington’s Headquarters National Historic Site since 2018, with a primary focus on researching and interpreting the LGBTQ history of the house. She previously worked at the National Parks of Boston, Appomattox Courthouse National Historical Park, and Gettysburg National Military Park. She is currently working on her bachelor’s degree in history.

Kate Potter is in her fourth season at the Longfellow House—Washington’s Headquarters National Historic Site. She has a bachelor’s degree in English Literature, and completed her master’s degree in museum studies in 2020. Her capstone paper focused on the interpretation of queer history at historic house museums.

RSVP on Eventbrite, link to the Zoom will be sent out the day of the event. Email info@historyproject.org with any questions. For security purposes, Zoom meetings require an authenticated Zoom account, so please be sure to register with Zoom prior to the event.

This event is free and open to the public, any donations made will support The History Project’s mission to document, preserve, and share LGBTQ history. Thank you for your support!