Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
‘man-woman’ to the extreme. Evans is perhaps Portrait of Edward De Lacy Evans, 1879
1
(Wo)man
Handsome of face with a muscular build 6, Ultimately, Evans had no choice but to
Evans was perceived as male for over resume living as a woman, regardless of
twenty years of his life by the Australian how he truly felt. Without Evans’
people. Regardless of the lack of facial accidental public exposure of his feminine
hair, the twenty years of labour and body, the world would have never known
arduous toil7 helped created the masculine that Evans was anything but an ordinary
physique that allowed Evans to pass as a cis-gendered man. Edward De Lacy Evans
man. Working the gold fields, marrying showcases the importance of queer lives
three women and even being believed that before the 21st century and giving voice to
he was a father — there was nothing that the forgotten aspects of history, especially
indicated Evans was anything but a man. in Australia. Although the terminology and
When Evans was finally outed to the world understanding of transgender people was
female after being admitted to the Kew away from the fact that they existed and
asylum”8, his ability to continue his life as tried to live in a world set against them.
2
Second Life, Second Chances
Although he boarded the immigration ship as luxurious, but he was happy, and claimed to
Ellen Tremayne and documented as female 9, have lived his life “grandly and splendidly”.10
Edward De Lacy Evans’ new life in Australia Evans worked on various goldfields as a
was as male as it could get from the moment miner11 for most of his life in Australia,
he stepped foot off the Ocean Monarch. working for companies such as Southern Cross
Evans’ new-found life in Australia was not Gold Mining Company, Sea Quartz Mining
3
Company and Great Southern Garden Gully a curious thing to see a ‘woman’ look so
Company.12 He also worked as a carter, masculine14. Those that knew him through
Bendigo and Stawell districts. 13 Through the chipper fellow, known for dancing Irish jigs,
constant hard manual labour, his body became singing and “continually in the habit of
muscular and his skin changed from the white, playing practical jokes”15; jokes such as
delicate complexion of a woman to tanned and dressing up as a woman and singing in a high
leathery; both of which helped persuade voice.16 This may have been a way to cement
people that he was a man. The way Evans his male identity, to make sure any feminine
looked was constantly remarked upon in aspects can be understood as a joke or act.
Ellen Who?
It was not the manual employment that made it would never get undressed in the company of
hard for Evans to keep up the male identity, men, or any person for that matter.19 During
but the people he met. Those that could 1862, a woman recognised Edward as Ellen,
identify Evans from his previous life in and proceeded to call him ‘Nellie’. 20 Upon
Kilkenny, Ireland 17 and those aboard the hearing that, Evans showed distain for it,
Ocean Monarch proved to be problems for stating clearly that he “did not like the
him. Even before his public discovery, many name”.21 Another woman who knew him
claimed that ‘he’ was a ‘she’, and according to fondly noted that she would tease Evans,
Evans it was mostly women did so.18 Perhaps calling him ‘Polly’ and told him she thought
this was because it was women he spent most he was a woman. In turn Evans would become
of his time upon the immigrant ship, as he enraged22 by this and was so persistent in
4
being accepted as a man, that those who Evans not wanting to be found out for
claimed he was a woman would receive his financial purposes as many scholars seem to
anger, sometimes to the point of violence. conclude, there is no doubt that Evans was
Evans’ rage at being identified as a woman likely experiencing gender dysphoria – typical
Edward De Lacy Evans and Julia Marquand, 1879 during Evans’ lifetime since the public saw
5
Marquand as seen on the left was Evans’ third answer Evans gives of wanting a better life
and final wife. allows for the thought of him truly ‘being a
Whilst Montague had left Evans for another woman’ who was trying to find an easier life
man28 and Moore died of pulmonary as a man, it does not explain his actions and
tuberculosis in 186729, it was Marquand who hatred of his past as a woman. His need to
discovery in 1879. It appears that it was being called feminine terms is a major
difficult for Evans to have stable indicator that Evans showed signs of being
6
Kew Asylum, 1885/1887
Gender Surrendered
The unravelling of Evans came from two for him to be the father, no matter how much
major incidences that caused him both Evans would claim it to be true. It was
mental and emotional stress; becoming speculated that Marquand had been duped in
injured at work from a piece of quartz falling the night by Evans, letting in a different man
upon his head,35 and his wife Marquand to copulate with her37, or that Marquand had
birthing a child. Although he “welcomed the been involved with her brother in law from
child as his own, he was deeply disturbed by another marriage.38 Violence and outbursts
the circumstances”36 since it was impossible transpired after the birth of the child Julia
7
Mary39 and worsened due to Evans’ injury.
too much for Evans’ family, and Marquand Portrait of Edward De Lacy Evans in an Asylum
hospital gown, 1879
lives. Most was speculated by fascinated Portrait of Edward De Lacy Evans in an Asylum
hospital gown, 1879
people that could not understand the idea of
8
Ellen and/or Edward
9
and live his life as a man Evans
been detrimental.
10
Poetry from a suspecting Bendigo Citizen about Edward De Lacy Evans,
1879
11
Edward De Lacy Evans
There is no real way of knowing what was It is impossible to know Evans true
going on in Edward De Lacy Evans’ life or emotions and how he identified, or why he
how he felt, whether it really was a way to depicted himself as a ‘real man’ for so long.
earn a better living for himself, if he was His emotional state when appearing in the
trying to figure out how to deal with sideshows was deemed “hopeless apathy50,
attraction to women or if he truly felt like which gives some insight to his mental state
he was a man. From how he presented after the discovery only one year later. It
physically to his emotional reaction to cannot be dismissed however, that there are
being called a ‘woman’, Evans seemed to major aspects of Edward De Lacy Evans’
fit the description of a transgender person life that resonate with that of a transgender
well. By the end of his life, Evans had been man. His existence in the 19th century is
forced into wearing women’s clothing and imperative to transgender history today, to
even put himself into a curiosity sideshows prove that transgender people and the
for some to make a living.47 Everything breaking of gender binary have existed long
about Evans’ life comes from speculation before the 21st century.
12
Images
Image 1: Ellen Tremayne, Alias Edward De Lacy Evans, the female Impersonator [image], (27 Sept.
1879), < http://www.slv.vic.gov.au/search-discover/explore-our-digital-image-
pool/view_image?record_key=3377339> accessed 15 Oct. 2018
Image 2: White, Nicholas, Portrait of Edward De Lacy Evans [Image], (1879),
<http://www.slv.vic.gov.au/search-discover/explore-our-digital-image-
pool/view_image?record_key=356677> accessed 15 Oct. 2018
Image 3: Rudd, Charles, View of Goldmine, Sandhurst shewing underground workings [image],
(1889/1891), <http://www.slv.vic.gov.au/search-discover/explore-our-digital-image-
pool/view_image?record_key=3468853> accessed 15 Oct. 2018
Image 4: Flegeltaub, Aaron, Portrait of Edward De Lacy Evans and his wife [image], (1879),
<http://www.slv.vic.gov.au/search-discover/explore-our-digital-image-
pool/view_image?record_key=356678 > accessed 15 Oct. 2018
Image 5: Curtis, James Waltham, The Sandhurst Impersonator – Mrs Edward De Lacy Evans [image], (1
Oct. 1879), < http://www.slv.vic.gov.au/search-discover/explore-our-digital-image-
pool/view_image?record_key=1089423> accessed 15 Oct. 2018
13
Secondary Sources
Barlow, Damian, ‘Un/Making Sexuality: Such is Life and the Observant Queer Reader’, Australian
Literary Studies, 21/2, (2003), 166-177
Chesser, Lucy, ‘"A Woman Who Married Three Wives": Management of Disruptive Knowledge in the
1879 Australian Case of Edward De Lacy Evans’, Journal of Women's History, 9/4, (1998), 53-7
Chesser, Lucy, Parting with my Sex: Crossdressing, Inversion and Sexuality in Australian Cultural Life,
(Sydney, Sydney University Library, 2008),
Chesser, Lucy, ‘Transgender-Approximate, Lesbian-Like, and Genderqueer: Writing about Edward De
Lacy Evans’, Journal of Lesbian Studies, 13/4, (2009), 373-394
Colligan, Mimi, ‘De Lacy Evans Revealed Aaron Flegletaub and Nicholas White’, History of
Photography, 23/2, (1999), 171-173
Colligan, Mimi, ‘The Mysterious Edward/Ellen De Lacy Evans, The Picaresque in Real Life’, The La
Trobe Journal, 69, (2002), 59-68
Primary
Anon., The History and confession of Ellen Tremayne, alias, De Lacy Evans, the man-woman,
(Melbourne? 1880) 1-28
‘A Woman who Married Three Wives’, New York Times, 25 Dec. 1879, in New York Times [Online
Database], accessed 11 Oct. 2018.
‘Death of De Lacy Evans’, Albury Banner and Wodonga Express, 30 Aug. 1901, in Trove [online
database], accessed 11 Oct. 2018.
‘Ellen Tremayne, Alias Edward De Lacy Evans, the Female Impersonator’, Australian Town and Country
Journal, 11 Oct. 1879, in Trove [online database], accessed 11 Oct. 2018.
‘Extraordinary Case of Concealment of Sex’, Bendigo Adviser, 4 Sep. 1879, in Trove [online database],
accessed 11 Oct. 2018.
‘Interviewing the De Lacy Evans’, Melbourne Punch, 11 Sept. 1879, in Trove [online database], accessed
11 Oct. 2018.
‘The Man Woman’ Border Watch, 18 Oct. 1879, in Trove [online database], accessed 11 Oct. 2018.
14
‘The Man Woman at the Egyptian Hall’, The Bulletin (Sydney), 25 Sep. 1880, in Trove [Online Database],
accessed 11 Oct. 2018
‘Mrs Edward De Lacy Evans’ The Herald, 16 Dec. 1879, in Trove [online database], accessed 11 Oct.
2018.
National Archives of Australia, Department of Communications and the Arts, The Man - Woman or the
DeLacey Evans Swindle, 1879 – 1879.
‘The Sandhurst Impersonator – Edward De Lacy Evans’, Illustrated Australian News, 1 Oct. 1879, in
Trove [online database], accessed 11 Oct. 2018.
Register of Assisted Immigrants from the United Kingdom. Microfiche VPRS 14. Public Record Office
Victoria, North Melbourne, Victoria.
END NOTES
1
Mimi Colligan, ‘De Lacy Evans Revealed Aaron Flegletaub and Nicholas White’, History of Photography,
23/2, (1999), 171-173
2
Ibed
3
Lucy Chesser, ‘Transgender-Approximate, Lesbian-Like, and Genderqueer: Writing about Edward De Lacy
Evans’, Journal of Lesbian Studies, 13/4, (2009), 374
4
Ibed
5
Aaron Flegletaub and Nicholas White, ‘De Lacy Evans Revealed’, History of Photography, 23/2, (1999), 171
6
‘Extraordinary Case of Concealment of Sex’, Bendigo Adviser, 4 Sep. 1879, in Trove [online database],
accessed 11 Oct. 2018.
7
Ibed
8
Damian Barlow, ‘Un/Making Sexuality: Such is Life and the Observant Queer Reader’, Australian Literary
Studies, 21/2, (2003), 169
9
Register of Assisted Immigrants from the United Kingdom. Microfiche VPRS 14. Public Record Office
Victoria, North Melbourne, Victoria.
‘Interviewing the De Lacy Evans’, Melbourne Punch, 11 Sept. 1879, in Trove [online database], accessed 11
10
Oct. 2018.
11
‘The Sandhurst Impersonator – Edward De Lacy Evans’, Illustrated Australian News, 1 Oct. 1879, in Trove
[online database], accessed 11 Oct. 2018.
12
The History and confession of Ellen Tremaye, alias, De Lacy Evans, the man-woman, (Melbourne? 1880), 12
13
Mimi Colligan, ‘The Mysterious Edward/Ellen De Lacy Evans, The Picaresque in Real Life’, The La Trobe
Journal, 69, (2002), 62
15
14
Remarks on Evans’ androgynous appearance.
‘The Man Woman’ Border Watch, 18 Oct. 1879, in Trove [online database], accessed 11 Oct. 2018.
‘The Sandhurst Impersonator – Edward De Lacy Evans’, Illustrated Australian News, 1 Oct. 1879, in Trove
[online database], accessed 11 Oct. 2018.
‘Interviewing the De Lacy Evans’, Melbourne Punch, 11 Sept. 1879, in Trove [online database], accessed 11
Oct. 2018.
15
The History and confession of Ellen Tremaye, alias, De Lacy Evans, the man-woman, (Melbourne? 1880), 16
16
Ibed.
17
‘Ellen Tremayne, Alias Edward De Lacy Evans, the Female Impersonator’, Australian Town and Country
Journal, 11 Oct. 1879, in Trove [online database], accessed 11 Oct. 2018.
18
‘Mrs Edward De Lacy Evans’ The Herald, 16 Dec. 1879, in Trove [online database], accessed 11 Oct. 2018.
19
The History and confession of Ellen Tremaye, alias, De Lacy Evans, the man-woman, (Melbourne? 1880), 23
20
Ibed. 11
21
Ibed. 11
22
Ibed. 8
23
The condition of feeling one's emotional and psychological identity as male or female to be opposite to one's
biological sex.
24
Lucy Chesser, Parting with my Sex: Crossdressing, Inversion and Sexuality in Australian Cultural Life, (Sydney,
Sydney University Library, 2008), 13
Lucy Chesser, ‘"A Woman Who Married Three Wives": Management of Disruptive Knowledge in the 1879
25
Australian Case of Edward De Lacy Evans’, Journal of Women's History, 9/4, (1998), 54
‘A Woman who Married Three Wives’, New York Times, 25 Dec. 1879, in New York Times [Online
26
Lucy Chesser, ‘"A Woman Who Married Three Wives": Management of Disruptive Knowledge in the 1879
36
Australian Case of Edward De Lacy Evans’, Journal of Women's History, 9/4, (1998), 59
37
Lucy Chesser, ‘Transgender-Approximate, Lesbian-Like, and Genderqueer: Writing about Edward De Lacy
Evans’, Journal of Lesbian Studies, 13/4, (2009), 382
16
38
Lucy Chesser, ‘Transgender-Approximate, Lesbian-Like, and Genderqueer: Writing about Edward De Lacy
Evans’, Journal of Lesbian Studies, 13/4, (2009), 387
39
‘Extraordinary Case of Concealment of Sex’, Bendigo Adviser, 4 Sep. 1879, in Trove [online database],
accessed 11 Oct. 2018.
40
‘The Sandhurst Impersonator – Edward De Lacy Evans’, Illustrated Australian News, 1 Oct. 1879, in Trove
[online database], accessed 11 Oct. 2018.
41
The History and confession of Ellen Tremaye, alias, De Lacy Evans, the man-woman, (Melbourne? 1880), 4
42
Aaron Flegletaub and Nicholas White, ‘De Lacy Evans Revealed’, History of Photography, 23/2, (1999), 171
43
NAA: A1188, 835B
44
‘Mrs Edward De Lacy Evans’ The Herald, 16 Dec. 1879, in Trove [online database], accessed 11 Oct. 2018.
45
‘Extraordinary Case of Concealment of Sex’, Bendigo Adviser, 4 Sep. 1879, in Trove [online database],
accessed 11 Oct. 2018.
46
Extraordinary
47
‘The Man Woman at the Egyptian Hall’, The Bulletin (Sydney), 25 Sep. 1880, in Trove [Online Database],
accessed 11 Oct. 2018
Lucy Chesser, ‘"A Woman Who Married Three Wives": Management of Disruptive Knowledge in the 1879
48
Australian Case of Edward De Lacy Evans’, Journal of Women's History, 9/4, (1998), 56
49
‘Death of De Lacy Evans’, Albury Banner and Wodonga Express, 30 Aug. 1901, in Trove [online database],
accessed 11 Oct. 2018.
50
‘The Man Woman at the Egyptian Hall’, The Bulletin (Sydney), 25 Sep. 1880, in Trove [Online Database],
accessed 11 Oct. 2018
17