Untitled
Artist: Ethel May (Monte) Punshon
Date & Location: c. 1923-mid 1950s, Australia.
Media: Scrapbook (newspaper clippings, primarily)
Where can I see this artwork? Australian Lesbian and Gay Archives

Significance to Queer Art History

Monte Punshon’s two scrapbooks are a collection of clippings many of which focus on women in same-sex relationships and women challenging gender norms. She was also a photographer, visual artist, performer, and teacher. Punshon created these scrapbooks for over three decades, but lived to be 106. She came out at 103 and met her last partner, Margaret, at the age of 101.

On a personal note, I chose Punshon’s work because this is my first post as curator of Queer Art History. She is iconic in many ways, and certainly as a collector of pieces of visual culture that affirmed her identities. What did Casey do here, and what will I do here, if not something similar for all of us?

Resources and Further Reading

Brickell, Chris, and Judith Collard. Queer Objects. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2019.