Performing a Queer Aesthetic in Early 20th Century Washington: Preliminary Findings from the Halcyon House Site

Summary

Located in the Georgetown area of Washington, DC, the Halcyon House is one of the only archaeological sites with a documented queer inhabitant. Albert Adsit Clemons, who was purportedly a relation of Mark Twain, lived on the property with a male carpenter, and together the two filled the house with oddities and antiques. In this paper, I will analyze the way that Clemons performed a queer aesthetic through his household décor and personal adornments. Although the site was excavated in 1985, the project lost funding and was never completed. This paper will discuss preliminary findings from two feature deposits related to Clemons, as well as documentary sources. These data and my analysis will expand upon the limited corpus of knowledge about early 20th century queer life in Washington and, more generally, about the way that non-normative sexualities are performed through consumptive choices.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 21362