 | This photograph, showing three Yale men in a theatrical production, circa 1880, is on the cover of the brochure for the exhibition "The Pink and the Blue: Lesbian and Gay Life at Yale and In Connecticut, 1642-2004." |
"The Pink and the Blue: Lesbian and Gay Life at Yale and in Connecticut, 1642-2004," an exhibit that looks both at the stories of individuals and at the broader changes in society over the centuries, will be on view Feb. 7-May 14 at the Sterling Memorial Library, 120 High St.
The exhibition, which is sponsored by the Larry Kramer Initiative for Lesbian and Gay Studies at Yale, "begins to piece together fragments of a history not yet written," according to Jonathan Ned Katz, who curated the show with the assistance of graduate student Brad Walters.
"This history illuminates the changing social organization of genders, sexualities and intimacies, their place in the larger social world, and the evolving reactions of that larger world," says Katz, a pioneering historian who is affiliated with the Kramer Initiative, which is overseen by the similarly named Jonathan D. Katz.
"The Pink and the Blue" moves chronologically from Connecticut's early colonial laws mandating death for sodomy to the first stirrings of the modern homosexual rights movement to Yale's recent development of the first lesbian and gay studies initiative in the Ivy League. Along the way, the exhibition touches on such themes as law, religion, morality, medicine, public health, politics, education, immigration, African-American and white culture, and women's and men's social lives.
The individuals whose lives are recounted in the exhibition include John William Sterling, an 1864 graduate who, after almost a half-century with the same man, left Yale what was then the largest bequest ever made to an American institution; Alan Hart, the Yale-trained director of Connecticut's tuberculosis program, who was born a woman but lived and passed as a man; and Addie Brown and Rebecca Primus, two 19th-century African-American women -- the former a domestic, the latter a teacher -- who shared an intimate relationship. The display also looks at the contributions of composer Cole Porter, journalist Sarah Pettit and academics John Boswell, Judith Butler, George Chauncey and Eve Sedgwick.
"Studded with revelations, 'The Pink and The Blue' makes clear that it is impossible to conceive of the modern Yale University absent its lesbian and gay past," says Jonathan D. Katz, executive coordinator of the Larry Kramer Initiative.
"With the advent of the Larry Kramer Initiative, lesbian and gay studies at Yale now has the institutional perch to produce historical exhibitions like 'The Pink and The Blue,'" he adds. "Ours are practically uncharted disciplinary waters."
Two special events will be presented in conjunction with the opening of "The Pink and the Blue" on Saturday, Feb. 7. A concert titled "The Music of Cole Porter" will be presented at 7 p.m. in the Memorabilia Room of the Sterling Memorial Library, 120 High St. Baritone Richard Lalli, associate professor (adjunct) in the Department of Music, will perform with a host of Yale a capella singers, including the Whiffenpoofs. This event is free and open to the public.
There will also be a reception and private tour led by curator Jonathan Ned Katz prior to the opening at 5 p.m. There is a donation requested ($100 minimum), which will include reserved concert seats, a catered reception and a commemorative poster. To register for the tour, send e-mail to lgs@yale.edu or call Rachel Pepper at (203) 432-7737.
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