Digital Transgender Archive

Research Assistants Reflect on Their First Research-Intensive Project

In the midst of the Digital Transgender Archive’s official launch, a collection that has been frequently brought up is that of the Early Tiffany Club Documents, which we digitized and processed last fall. The nine documents in this collection all pertain to the start-up of the Tiffany Club, a social club in the greater Boston area for crossdressers as well as for their families and friends. This collection proved challenging from the start when we were handed a manilla folder simply labeled “Merissa’s Documents.” Our work shifts revolved around trying to figure out how each of these documents connected to each other, as well as what story they told all together. There were countless times when we thought we had figured it out, and then re-read a document and realized we had misunderstood something or had gathered bad research. This trial and error made the culmination of the project that much more satisfying. While most of our work here involves cataloging trans history, this time we were able to discover it.