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Finding Aid to the Harry Benjamin Licenses and Awards, 1915-1975 Coll2014.063
Coll2014.063  
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Collection Details
 
Table of contents What's This?
  • Biographical / Historical
  • Conditions Governing Access
  • Processing Information
  • Preferred Citation
  • Scope and Contents
  • Conditions Governing Use

  • Language of Material: English
    Contributing Institution: ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives, USC Libraries, University of Southern California
    Title: Harry Benjamin licenses and awards
    Identifier/Call Number: Coll2014.063
    Physical Description: 1.3 Linear Feet 1 archive flat box
    Date (inclusive): 1915-1975
    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.

    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.

    Conditions Governing Access

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

    Processing Information

    Collection was processed by Kyle Morgan, 2014.

    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.

    Scope and Contents

    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).

    Conditions Governing Use

    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.

    Subjects and Indexing Terms

    Physicians -- Licenses
    Awards
    Transgenderism
    Benjamin, Harry