This digital collection is composed of 13 large scrapbooks from the University of Ulster Trans-Gender Archive (TGA) Collection. The Ulster TGA Collection forms a significant part of the UVic Transgender Archives holdings.
The University of Ulster TGA Ccollection was founded in January 1986 by Professor Richard Ekins; at that time it was the first such collection in the world to be housed within a university setting, and the term “trans-gender” was barely in use. The collection ceased its connection with the University of Ulster in July 2010, when Ekins left his regular employment there and became an Emeritus Professor of Sociology and Cultural Studies at the University of Ulster. The collection was donated to the University of Victoria Libraries in 2013.
The University of Ulster TGA collection was focused on understanding how attitudes and representations of transgender people have developed and changed over time. It looked at three broad aspects of transgender:
• biology and the body, gender expression, and erotic expression and representation through the lenses of expert knowledge, as recorded by scientists and social scientists
• transgender-community-member knowledge, as recorded by and for transgender people themselves
• and common-sense knowledge, as recorded by and for members of the general public.
The scrapbooks’ date range is 1964 to 1979, and their contents relate to gender and sexual identity within popular culture. The scrapbooks are approximately 32cm (length) x 21cm (width) and are constructed from inexpensive art paper pads with differently coloured pages. Each scrapbook is numbered in the top right-hand corner of the cover and they are illustrated with newspaper and magazine clippings, mainly originating in the UK (where sources can be identified). Some scrapbooks contain photographs and loose items, such as posters. Cellophane tape was used to protect the covers.
The scrapbooks were created by Adele Anderson, a member of the British satirical singing trio, Fascinating Aïda.
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