Behind Closed Doors: 16 Romantic Photographs Documenting Queer Women Couples in the Victorian Era _ Ukhistorical

The Victorian era saw the death penalty for buggery abolished in 1861 – but it wasn’t exactly plain sailing for LGBT people after that.

The Victorian period has been described as pivotal in its contribution to modern language around sexuality for Western based cultures. For many of the indigenous peoples of the Americas, it meant a radical and destructive restructuring of age old traditions around gender and sexuality through continued colonization.

As attitudes and expectations around marital and intimate relationships became more strict in Victorian England, this put pressure on LGBT people living in Western cultures, as well as Native American populations. Heterosexuality was naturalized and normalized while any sexual behaviors and gender presentations outside of these parameters became labeled as deviant.

One 19th century definition of queer names it as that which differs from the life-script of “opposite-sex” marriage and reproduction. Queer theory thus provides a framework which challenges the assumed opposition of homosexuality and heterosexuality. By removing the prescribed naturalism of these cultural terms one is able to examine the complexity of desire.

"The Darned Club", October 29, 1891. Alice Austen (left) and her three friends, Trudy Eccleston, Julia Marsh, and Sue Ripley at the Austen House gardens at Clear Comfort on Staten Island.

Dr. Holly Furneaux of the University of London has argued that the homo social nature of Victorian society accommodated a wide range of queer desires as well as non-marital and non-reproductive impulses. Her research has revealed many instances in which such behaviors were viewed as acceptable and often welcomed.

Check out these loving and joyful images of queer women from the Victorian Era.