a gay little history page

Maryland LGBTQ+ history with Ben

Works Cited

A Collection of sources for zines and other materials:

Zine One: Queer Characters:
George Wilson:
  • MARYLAND PENITENTIARY (Prisoner Record), 1830-1840. 3133: George Wilson (a female). MSA SE65-3. Courtesy of the Maryland State Archives.
  • SECRETARY OF STATE (Pardon Papers), 1838. George Wilson. MSA S1031-2. MdHR 5401-40. Courtesy of the Maryland State Archives.
  • “Influence of a Bad Example.” The Sun, 19 Feb. 1838, p. 4.
  • [George Wilson]. The Sun, 27 Nov. 1838, p. 2.
  • “At Her Old Tricks.” The Sun, 14 Feb. 1840, p. 2
Charlotte Walters:
Howard Calder:
Mary Jones:
Zine Two: The Pepper Hill Club
Books and Articles:
Vice Reports:
Government Documents:
Oral Histories:
Newspaper Articles:
Zine Two Point Five: The Gold Key
Zine Three: The Pocomoke Tragedy
  • Duggan, Lisa. Sapphic slashers : sex, violence, and American modernity. Duke University Press, 2000.
  • Murray, J. (1888). History of Pocomoke City, formerly new town: From its origin to the present time. 
  • Faderman, L. (1985). Surpassing the love of men: Romantic friendship and love between women from the renaissance to the present. Womens Press Ltd.
  • Skidmore, E. (2021). True Sex: The Lives of Trans Men at the turn of the twentieth century. NYU Press.
  • A Young Girl Shoots Her Lady Friend. (1878, December 9). New York Times, p. 2. Retrieved from https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-new-york-times/135300377/ 
  • Accidental Shooting (1878, November 9). Record and Gazette. Pocomoke City, MD. p. 3
  • Perils of Playing with a Pistol. [From Baltimore Evening Bulletin] (1878, November 13). Richmond Dispatch, p. 1. 
  • Maryland Items. (1878, November 12). Baltimore Sun, p. 3.
  • A Young Girl Accidentally Shot (1878, November 12) Baltimore Gazette, p. 1
  • The Pocomoke Tragedy. The Mystery of the Shooting of Miss Ella Hearn. (1879, May 20). Every Evening [News Journal] (Wilmington, De.), 1. 
  • A Young Girl Shoots Her Lady Friend. (1878, December 9). New York Times. 
  • [no title]. (1878, December 9). The Philadelphia Times. 
  • Remarkable Tragedy. (1878, December 13). New York Herald.
  • The Pocomoke Tragedy. The Shooting of Miss Ella Hearn by Miss Lilly Duer. (1878, December 13). Every Evening [News Journal] (Wilmington, De.), 3.
  • The Pocomoke Tragedy [From the Baltimore Evening Bulletin]. (1878, December 17). The Star (Easton, MD), 3. 
  • The Tragedy. A Fatal Termination of the Duer-Hearn Affair. (1878, December 14). Record and Gazette (Pocomoke City, MD), 3. 
  • The Duer-Hearn Shooting Case. (1878, December 16). Baltimore Sun, 1.
  • The Pokomoke Tragedy: Miss Duer’s Story of the Shooting. (1879, June 14). New York Times, 2. 
  • The Pocomoke Tragedy. Interesting interview with the Prisoner, Miss Lillian Duer. (1879, June 16). New York Herald, 4. 
  • The Duer-Hearn Tragedy: A Girl’s Singular Friendship. (1879, May 15). New York Times, 1.
  • Sensational Shooting. Young Girl Seriously Wounded by a Devoted Female Companion. (1878, December 12). New Orleans Times-Picayune, 6.
  • Lilly Duer’s Passion. (1878, December 13). New York Herald, 6. 
  • A Girl’s Abnormal Passion. (1878, December 13). Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 2. 
  • Unsexed Sentiment. (1878, December 15). Sunday Mercury (New York). 
  • The Pocomoke Tragedy. (1878, December 9). Baltimore Evening Bulletin, 2. 
  • The Hearn-Duer Tragedy. More Strange Developments. (1878, December 9). Baltimore Evening Bulletin, 4. 
  • [no title]. (1878b, December 11). Philadelphia Times, 4. 
  • The Duer-Hearn Shooting Case. (1878a, December 12). Kent News (Chestertown, Md.), 2. 
  • [The Democratic Messenger Says:]. (1878, December 21). Cambridge Era (Cambridge, Md.), 3. 
  • [No Title]. (1878c, December 16). Philadelphia Times, 3.
  • Laurel. (1879, June 17). Every Evening (Wilmington, DE), 2.
  • Court. (1879, May 17). Record and Gazette (Pocomoke City, Md.), 3. 
  • “Lillian Duer of Pocomoke.” The Sun [New York], 20 June 1879, p. 3.
Zine Four: The Pansy Craze
Zine Five: The Friday Nights
  • Julia Rebecca Rogers | Goucher College, https://www.goucher.edu/library/special-collections-and-archives/exhibits/building-a-greater-goucher-the-history-of-the-towson-campus/honored-individuals/julia-rebecca-rogers. Accessed 3 December 2025.
  • Bender, Bert. “The Varieties of Human Experience: Sexual Intimacy, Heredity, and Emotional Conflict in Gertrude Stein’s Early Work.” Amerikastudien / American Studies, vol. 44, no. 4, 1999, pp. 519-543. JSTOR.
  • “Circular announcing the Women’s Medical Fund Campaign.” Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine Founding Documents, 1890. Johns Hopkins Libraries JScholarship, Johns Hopkins University, Alan Mason Chesney Medical Archives, http://jhir.library.jhu.edu/handle/1774.2/44551.
  • Cleves, Rachel Hope. Charity and Sylvia: A Same-Sex Marriage in Early America. Oxford University Press, 2016.
  • “Elizabeth King Ellicott (1858-1914) MSA SC 3520-13588.” Archives of Maryland (Biographical Series), Maryland State Archives, https://msa.maryland.gov/megafile/msa/speccol/sc3500/sc3520/013500/013588/html/13588bio.html. Accessed 2 December 2025.
  • Hirschland, Ellen B., and Nancy Hirschland Ramage. The Cone sisters of Baltimore : collecting at full tilt. Evanston, IL, Northwestern University Press, 2008.
  • Horowitz, Helen Lefkowitz. The Power and Passion of M. Carey Thomas. New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 1994.
  • Leslie, Mukau. “Johns Hopkins and the Feminist Legacy: How a Group of Baltimore Women Shaped American Graduate Medical Education.” American Journal of Clinical Medicine, vol. 9, no. 3, 2012, pp. 118-127.
  • Pollack, Barbara. The Collectors Dr. Claribel and Miss Etta Cone. Indianapolis, IN, Bobbs-Merrill, 1962.
  • Richardson, Brenda, and William C. Ameringer. Dr Claribel & Miss Etta: the Cone collection of the Baltimore Museum of Art. Baltimore, Baltimore Museum of Art, 1985.
  • Sander, Kathleen Waters. Mary Elizabeth Garrett: Society and Philanthropy in the Gilded Age. Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008.
  • Stein, Gertrude. Fernhurst, Q.E.D., and other early writings. Liverlight, 1971.
  • Wade, Francesca. Gertrude Stein: An Afterlife. Scribner, 2025.
  • Wineapple, Brenda. “Gertrude Stein: Woman Is a Woman Is.” The American Scholar, vol. 67, no. 1, 1998, pp. 107-112. JSTOR.
Zine Six: The Activists
  • Bailey, Johnny L. AS PROUD OF OUR GAYNESS, AS WE ARE OF OUR BLACKNESS”: THE POLITICAL AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE AFRICAN-­AMERICAN LGBTQ COMMUNITY IN BALTIMORE AND WASHINGTON, D.C., 1975-­‐1991. 2017. Morgan State University.  PhD dissertation.
  • Clark, Laurel A. “Beyond the Gay/Straight Split: Socialist Feminists in Baltimore.” NWSA Journal, vol. 19, no. 2, 2007, pp. 1–31. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/40071203. Accessed 10 Feb. 2026.
  • Egerman, Ben. Black Gay and Lesbian Life and Activism in Baltimore, 1970-2000: Andre Powell Oral History Interview. 22 Feb 2020. Maryland Rainbow Oral History Collection. Special Collections, Enoch Pratt Free Library.  https://collections.digitalmaryland.org/digital/collection/mdrh/id/42/rec/1 
  • Egerman, Ben. Black Gay and Lesbian Life and Activism in Baltimore, 1970-2000:  Paulette Young Oral History Interview. 23 Feb 2020. Maryland Rainbow Oral History Collection. Special Collections, Enoch Pratt Free Library.  https://collections.digitalmaryland.org/digital/collection/mdrh/id/19/rec/2 
  • Egerman, Ben. Black Gay and Lesbian Life and Activism in Baltimore, 1970-2000:  Silas White Oral History Interview. 20 Feb 2020. Maryland Rainbow Oral History Collection. Special Collections, Enoch Pratt Free Library.  https://collections.digitalmaryland.org/digital/collection/mdrh/id/22/rec/3  
  • Egerman, Ben. Black Gay and Lesbian Life and Activism in Baltimore, 1970-2000:  Louis Hughes Oral History Interview. 22 Feb 2020. Maryland Rainbow Oral History Collection. Special Collections, Enoch Pratt Free Library.  https://collections.digitalmaryland.org/digital/collection/mdrh/id/33/rec/4   
  • Egerman, Ben. LGBTQ+ Activism in Maryland, 1970-2010: Richard Oloizia Oral History Interview. 21 May 2021. Maryland Rainbow Oral History Collection. Special Collections, Enoch Pratt Free Library.  https://collections.digitalmaryland.org/digital/collection/mdrh/id/54/rec/5    
  • Egerman, Ben. Oral history conducted July 21, 2022. Interview subjects: Jim Becker.
  • Grimstad, Kirsten, and Susan Rennie, editors. The New Woman’s Survival Catalog. Berkeley, CA, Berkeley Publishing Company, 1973.
  • Valk, Anne M. “Living a Feminist Lifestyle: The Intersection of Theory and Action in a Lesbian Feminist Collective.” Feminist Studies, vol. 28, no. 2, 2002, pp. 303–32. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/3178744. Accessed 10 Feb. 2026.

This website is a place for Ben Egerman’s LGBTQ+ mid-atlantic history writings and events. From trans horse thieves to lesbian millionaires to important protests, Maryland’s history is far from straight-laced. Enjoy learning about the queer past!

Demonstrators from the organization ACT UP protest the lack of response to the AIDS crisis in front of the headquarters of the Food and Drug Administration, Silver Spring, Maryland

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