Digital Transgender Archive

America’s First Trans Celebrity

The Christine Jorgensen Collection, part of our recently added Transas City materials, offers a fascinating look into the public and private life of America’s first transgender celebrity. In addition to many newspaper clippings about Jorgensen’s personal life and even one video about Jorgensen’s return to the United States after surgery in Denmark, the collection contains many photographs. We found these photographs to be an excellent supplement to our prior knowledge of Jorgensen’s life. These artifacts showcase different aspects of her multifaceted life, from her celebrity encounters to snapshots of her daily life.

One photograph that we found particularly interesting depicts Jorgensen performing at the Silver Slipper club in Las Vegas. The Transas City website, where these items are held, notes that this photograph was accompanied by a plaque describing her as simply an entertainer, not a transgender woman. This small but significant wording, as the blog’s creator remarks, suggests some sort of societal acceptance of gender variance.