Iron Dukes and Naked Races: Edward Carpenter's Sheffield and LGBTQ Public History

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article explores the development of a public history walk based on the life of Edward Carpenter (1844–1929), late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Sheffield-based writer, campaigner and sex reformer. It argues that understanding the world in which Carpenter and his comrades, friends and lovers lived, dreamed and loved, requires attention to both the alterity of sexual experiences in the past and historical continuity in terms of sexual identities and practices that are marginalised within different mainstream cultures. Public History brings a new perspective to this debate, drawing attention to the resonance of history in terms of present day identities. The article also addresses the heteronormativity of public history, the role of history in place-making and the ways in which public history, creative history and the practice of walking can challenge dominant versions of urban history and urge us to think critically about different ways of knowing the past.