Title and statement of responsibility area
Title proper
Barbara Jean collection
General material designation
- Graphic material
- Textual record
Parallel title
Other title information
Title statements of responsibility
Title notes
Level of description
Collection
Reference code
CA UVICARCH SC533
Edition statement
Edition statement of responsibility
Class of material specific details area
Statement of scale (cartographic)
Statement of projection (cartographic)
Statement of coordinates (cartographic)
Statement of scale (architectural)
Issuing jurisdiction and denomination (philatelic)
Dates of creation area
Date(s)
-
1930 - 2014 (Creation)
- Creator
- Barbara Jean
Physical description area
Physical description
2 metres graphic and textual material
Title proper of publisher's series
Parallel titles of publisher's series
Other title information of publisher's series
Statement of responsibility relating to publisher's series
Numbering within publisher's series
Note on publisher's series
Archival description area
Name of creator
Biographical history
Barbara Jean was the feminine persona, or second self, of Robert Burman (1926-2014), a Southern California architect. Barbara Jean was an active member of the transvestite community in the 1950s and 1960s. She created approximately 300 original drawings from the 1930s to the 1960s, in the genre of “petticoat punishment,” which she continued to elaborate upon throughout her life; Barbara Jean signed her works “BJ.”
Barbara Jean sold her art to publications and retained the originals; crossdressing publications throughout the 1960s featured her work including: Fated for Femininity (1962), Transvestia (1960 onwards), The Transvestite and His Wife (1967), The American Crossdresser (undated), and Turnabout (1963), as well as dozens of other underground publications devoted to the genre. Barbara Jean collaborated with Howard Bardol, also known by the feminine persona Nan Gilbert or Nancy; Barbara Jean created illustrations based on Nancy’s photographs. The collection contains drawings, notes and photographs they exchanged.
Custodial history
Material was acquired from Barbara Jean by a collector over an approximate 20 year period.
Scope and content
The collection primarily reflects the artistic and related published output of Barbara Jean, and is relatively homogeneous; it consists of over 4600 items, primarily original drawings and their derivations, in pencil and ink, in black and white and colour, as well as notes and correspondence, and black and white and colour photographs. Digital copies of drawings found in the analogue files, and digital images for which there is no corresponding analogue image are found on 17 CDs. The collection also includes some material from Burman’s later life unrelated to Barbara Jean and the cross-dressing community. The collection consists of the following groupings identified by the collector or the creator: binders of original drawings and their derivations, and related photographic and textual materials; folders identified as “working files” consisting of drawings and their derivations, related photographic and textual materials; and CDs consisting of digital images, for which there may or may not be corresponding analogue images.
Notes area
Physical condition
Immediate source of acquisition
Donated in 2017 to Special Collections & University Archives by an anonymous collector.
Arrangement
Arrangement as received from the donor.
Language of material
- English
Script of material
Location of originals
Availability of other formats
Restrictions on access
Terms governing use, reproduction, and publication
Finding aids
Generated finding aid
Associated materials
Accruals
Alternative identifier(s)
Standard number
Access points
Subject access points
Place access points
Name access points
Genre access points
Control area
Description record identifier
SC533
Institution identifier
Rules or conventions
Status
Draft
Level of detail
Full
Dates of creation, revision and deletion
Language of description
- English
Script of description
Sources
Digital object metadata
Filename
BarbaraJean_Collection_2017_001.pdf
Latitude
Longitude
Media type
Text
Mime-type
application/pdf