Queer History Online

After that last post, I decided I should also post a link to the excellent glbtq.com, "an encyclopedia of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and queer culture" - you know, all the stuff they left out of the history books. You should check it out, tons of excellent articles and photographs on all things queer, past and present.

It's important that we claim our own history and heritage, and not let it be deleted from the record ever again. That's one reason, of several, that queer people just don't exist in many straight people's concept of the world - they were never told we existed, and all the evidence that we did was carefully hidden from view. Ours was "the love that dare not speak its name," the "sin too horrible for Christians to mention."

But we are here, we've always been here - and it's way past time to change the way things are taught, don't you think?

And boy, history class sure would have been a lot more interesting if the textbook had had pictures like these, wouldn't it boys?

Paintings by British artist Henry Scott Tuke (1858-1929). Click to enlarge.

Humanity's Heritage Online

Those of you who get a kick out of historical stuff should go check out the new World Digital Library site:

The WDL makes it possible to discover, study, and enjoy cultural treasures from around the world on one site, in a variety of ways. These cultural treasures include, but are not limited to, manuscripts, maps, rare books, musical scores, recordings, films, prints, photographs, and architectural drawings.

Items on the WDL may easily be browsed by place, time, topic, type of item, and contributing institution, or can be located by an open-ended search, in several languages. Special features include interactive geographic clusters, a timeline, advanced image-viewing and interpretive capabilities. Item-level descriptions and interviews with curators about featured items provide additional information.

Navigation tools and content descriptions are provided in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish. Many more languages are represented in the actual books, manuscripts, maps, photographs, and other primary materials, which are provided in their original languages.

The WDL was developed by a team at the U.S. Library of Congress, with contributions by partner institutions in many countries; the support of the United Nations Education, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO); and the financial support of a number of companies and private foundations.

Here's a quick sampling, there's lots more where this came from.

American history buffs should also check out the Library of Congress American Memory site.