Jun. 13th, 2008

highlyeccentric: Sign on Little Queen St - One Way both directions (purple)
I'm going to start doing a bit of research now... for 'fun'... and I spoke to the Vice-Principal, and once my thesis is out of the way, I'm going to start some serious research into Louisa MacDonald and her lesbian partner. I'll have to get permission from the Principal to access the archives, and talk to her biographer, and read some Queer Theory, and all kinds of strange stuff.

Nevertheless, I'm going to try to produce an academic paper on Louisa MacDonald- 19th Century Australia's best paid lesbian.
Because, y'know, I'm not going crazy enough as it is. And because a medieval philologist is obviously the best person to do modern australian queer/feminist history.

It's just that I'd rather we mistake a courageous straight woman for a courageous lesbian than not talk about it at all, for fear of her (our) 'reputation'. It doesn't much matter if they were in a sexual relationship or not- clearly, Louisa knew she wanted this woman with her for the rest of her life, and she was in the unique social and economic position to say 'come with me'. And she had the courage to do so, despite knowing that 'Dick' would cause trouble and raise eyebrows wherever they went...

I can't just let that pass. Could you?
highlyeccentric: Sheer Geekiness, unfortunately - I just think this stuff is really cool (phd comics) (Sheer Geekiness)
There are several new and exciting aspects to research which my little modern project has suddenly made available to me. Like primary documents, within arm's reach! The knowledge that there are lots of sources, both easy and difficult to access, if I only look in the right places. There will be dead ends, but... *glees*

For example, this afternoon I walked down the corridor and looked at the official college photos. Evelyn 'Dick' Dickson does not appear once in said photos, in the twenty odd years she lived here. I wouldn't expect her in the years she was only Louisa's guest, but when the Council insisted she enrol in University (who paid her fees, I wonder??), it seems she did not become a student of Women's College. (I'll have to check the Roll, though. See above point about LOTS OF SOURCES), and nor does she appear in photographs in the years she was Honorary Physician. (The latter doesn't seem to be odd- at that early stage no tutors or staff appear in the photographs aside from Louisa.)

Louisa's sister-in-law appears in one photograph as Principal, in one of the years in which Louisa was overseas visiting the aging Eleanor Grove. On some occaisions Evelyn acted as Principal in Louisa's stead (she normally acted as Louisa's secretary), but interestingly, no photographs feature Evelyn as stand-in Principal.

Maybe the year in question was the only year in which Louisa's absence was long enough to warrant a stand-in in a photo. Maybe the photo was taken for press purposes.

There are a lot of gaps in the early photo wall, however... I wonder what factors meant they took no photos?

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