Harry Benjamin licenses and awards, 1915-1975

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Summary

Abstract:
Licenses to practice medicine and awards from medical groups for Dr. Harry Benjamin, 1915-1975. Benjamin was a clinical specialist in transexualism and an advocate for transgender people.
Extent:
1.3 Linear Feet 1 archive flat box
Language:
English
Preferred citation:

[Box/folder #, or item name] Harry Benjamin Licenses and Awards, Coll2014-063, ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives, USC Libraries, University of Southern California.

Background

Scope and content:

The collection includes Dr. Harry Benjamin's licenses to practice medicine from the University of the State of New York (1915) and the Board of Medical Examiners of the State of California (1934), and awards from the American Geriatrics Society (1950), Association for the Advancement of Psychotherapy (1955), Society for the Scientific Study of Sex (1966), Harry Benjamin International Conference on Gender Identity (1975), and Fifty Year Club of American Medicine (undated).

Biographical / historical:

Dr. Harry Benjamin was born in Berlin, Germany, in 1885. He moved to New York in the 1920s and started a practice focusing on endocrinology and gender identity. Up to the 1960s, he was the go-to person for transgender people seeking medical treatment in the United States. Dr. Benjamin assisted Christine Jorgensen, Reed Erickson, Renée Richards, and numerous others to medically alter their physiology. He also provided them and other transgender people with social and legal support. In the 1960s, Benjamin helped establish the Harry Benjamin Foundation to assist transgender people in obtaining surgery. Benjamin retired in the 1970s and the Harry Benjamin International Gender Dysphoria Association (HBIGDA) was named in his honor.

Processing information:

Collection was processed by Kyle Morgan, 2014.

Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Access and use

Restrictions:

The collection is open to researchers. There are no access restrictions.

Terms of access:

All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the ONE Archivist. Permission for publication is given on behalf of ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives at USC Libraries as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained.

Preferred citation:

[Box/folder #, or item name] Harry Benjamin Licenses and Awards, Coll2014-063, ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives, USC Libraries, University of Southern California.

Location of this collection:
909 West Adams Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90007, US
Contact:
(213) 821-2771
askone@usc.edu
Website