LGBT+ History Month 2025

In the UK, February marks LGBT+ History month, an initiative started by the education charity Schools OUT. Now in its twentieth year, the month provides an opportunity for LGBTQ+ people from a variety of backgrounds to explore their histories. You can learn more about the national campaign here.

This year, our display highlights some lesser known queer stories in history, from the medieval islamicate world to Brighton in the 50s and 60s. Be sure to check out the physical books on display, as well as our e-book display below.

Oxford University members can access all e-books remotely by signing into SOLO with their ‘Single Sign On.’ Click on the book covers below to view the SOLO records for some of the featured texts.

Our physical display includes:

  1. Black on Both Sides : A Racial History of Trans Identity by C. Riley Snorton.
  2. Re-Dressing: America’s Frontier Past by Peter Boag.
  3. Daring Hearts : Lesbian and Gay Lives of 50s and 60s Brighton by The Brighton Ourstory Project.
  4. Male Colors : The Construction of Homosexuality in Tokugawa Japan by Gary P. Leupp.
  5. Masculinity, Class and Same-sex Desire in Industrial England, 1895-1957 by Helen Smith.
  6. Islamicate Sexualities : Translations Across Temporal Geographies of Desire, edited by Kathryn Babayan and Afsaneh Najmabadi.
  7. Female Masculinity by Jack Halberstam.
  8. The Pink Triangle by Richard Plant.
  9. True Sex : The Lives of Trans Men at the Turn of the Twentieth Century by Emily Skidmore.
  10. Autobiography of an Androgyne by Ralph Werther/Earl Lind, edited by Scott Herring.
  11. Intimate Friends : Women Who Loved Women, 1778-1928 by Martha Vicinus.
  12. Histories of the Transgender Child by Jules Gill-Peterson.
  13. Gay Life and Culture : A World History by Robert Aldrich.
  14. Good as You by Paul Flynn.
  15. It’s Not Unusual: A History of Lesbian and Gay Britain in the Twentieth Century by Alkarim Jivani.
  16. Out on Stage by Alan Sinfield.

History of Writing

Banner reading "History of Writing" in black text over a light grey background. In the background, there are illustrations in white depicting: a lighthouse with a wave next to it, a bouquet of violets, and a manor surrounded by blighted trees and framed by heather flowers and buds.

This January marks the birth month of many widely acclaimed writers, such as J.R.R. Tolkien, J.D. Salinger, Virginia Woolf, Anne Brontë, A. Milne, Edgar Alan Poe, Isaac Asimov and many more contemporary writers like Haruki Murakami. It is also the beginning of the 250th year since Jane Austen’s birth, which will be celebrated in December 2025.

To celebrate this, a display showcasing the history of writing has been prepared in the Radcliffe Camera. It will follow the broad history of writing as a medium of storytelling, from ancient times to the modern world as well as the print and publishing processes that go along with it. An e-book display, which can be accessed below by clicking on the book cover pictures, goes into more detail with the historical context of the writers mentioned above, as well as following the histories of writing outside of Europe.

These e-book resources can be accessed via SOLO, which will require an Oxford University SSO login. Alternatively, they can be used through a Bodleian reader account for external readers who can access the material by connecting to the Bodleian Libraries Wi-fi network or logging on to the reader PCs within the library.

Banner reading "History of Writing" in black text over a light grey background. In the background, there are illustrations in white depicting: a raven on a branch with twigs and branches in the background and a dragon on a pile of sparkling treasure including goblets, crowns and jewels.