Murray Hall (politician)

Murray Hall (1841 - January 16, 1901) was a New York City bail bondsman and Tammany Hall politician made famous upon his death in 1901, when it was revealed that he was assigned female at birth.[1]

Born in Govan, Scotland as Mary Anderson, Hall lived as a man for nearly 25 years, able to work as a politician and vote in a time when women were denied such rights. At the time of his death, he resided with his second wife and their adopted daughter.

His last home was an apartment in Greenwich Village, half a block north of the Jefferson Market Courthouse (now the Jefferson Market Library). [2] The apartment is still there, above a noodle shop. The building was renumbered in 1929, when Sixth Avenue (Manhattan) was extended south, and is now 453 6th Avenue; walking tours sometimes stop there and listen to his story.

Hall was buried in Mount Olivet Cemetery.[3]

References

  1. ↑ "New York Times: death of Murray Hall, January 19, 1901".
  2. ↑ "MURRAY HALL FOOLED MANY SHREWD MEN" (PDF). New York Times. January 19, 1901. Retrieved October 14, 2010.
  3. ↑ "MURRAY HALL'S FUNERAL.; The Man-Woman Was Dressed for Burial in Woman's Clothes". New York Times. January 20, 1901. Retrieved October 29, 2009.

Further reading

The San Francisco Lesbian and Gay History Project, "She Even Chewed Tobacco": A Pictorial Narrative of Passing Women in America, in Hidden from History: Reclaiming the Gay and Lesbian Past. Edited by Martin Duberman, Martha Vicinus and George Chauncey, Jr. (New York: Meridian, 1990), 183-194.

Karen Abbott, "The Mystery of Murray Hall," Smithsonian, July 21, 2011.


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.