Trans Trans : Transgender Histories Between Germany and the United States, 1882-1996 / Exhibition Production: Annette F. Timm ; Curated by Rainer Herm, Michael Thomas Taylor

The exhibition 'Trans Trans' explores a network of individuals in Germany and the United States from the turn of the twentieth century into the 1950s who profoundly shaped transgender histories and identities. Turning medical-scientific history on its head, the exhibition documents the driving role that trans individuals played in the development of medical concepts and treatments and in the fostering of supportive communities for those seeking affirmation of their gender identities. The exhibition reconstructs personal connections that unfolded across the Atlantic, and it follows the ways in which photographs and other images were made by trans individuals and sent to magazines or doctors for publication, creating communities and making visible their identities in public and private. The show exhibits extremely rare images from the world?s first popular magazine to focus on trans identity, Das 3. Geschlecht (The Third Sex), which was published in Berlin from 1930-1932, and it tracks connections between this earlier German history and the work of Dr. Harry Benjamin, whose 1966 book The Transsexual Phenomenon drew from his years of training in Germany and work with trans patients to make a plea for acceptance and supportive medical treatment to an American audience. In Calgary, the exhibition also included a video interview project with local individuals taking up questions posed by this history about gender identity today.