James Wright puzzles Cincinnati, 1858
(And also this researcher.)
Gender presentation apparently seemed simple to police officers in 19th-century America: short hair equals “male;” long hair equals “female.” So when the police in Cincinnati, Ohio, saw a long-haired individual with rouge on cheeks and lips, but dressed in men’s clothing, why, that person just must be a woman dressing as a man. So, arrest her. Except this individual was James Wright, a young man pretending to be a young woman pretending to be a young man.
Or so he said. James explained to one reporter that he did what he did to “tantalize the ladies.” But it’s likely there were few ladies in the saloons he liked to frequent, so Wright seems to have been looking for other attention.
He may have been an actor. In the 1850s there was an actor named James Wright who played in New Orleans; and the Cincinnati James Wright “attracted much attention in the vicinity of the National Theatre,” in which Cooper’s English Opera Troupe was then appearing.
What I haven’t found is any mention of him in the few Cincinnati newspapers available for the late 1850s. Cincinnati was certainly interested when Jane Anderson came into its spotlight; but James’s story is covered only in a handful of newspapers outside the state of Ohio.
The piece most reprinted is the longest one. (He “arranges his … bosom in a suspicious manner” is a delightful phrase. It means he’s arranging the bosom of his shirt in order to appear voluptuous.)
“A Man-Woman.” Alexandria Gazette [Alexandria, Virginia] 23 December 1858; p. 2.
A young man named James Wright was arrested by Lieut. Bernard, in Cincinnati, Ohio, on the charge of disorderly conduct. It seems that he is in the habit of passing himself off as a woman dressed in men’s clothes.—He has a profusion of long, black hair, which he arranges so as to look like ladies’ hair turned under. He then paints his cheeks and lips, arranges his collar and bosom in a suspicious manner, and starts out.
He has been following this practice for several years and has obtained a gait which would be readily taken for that of a lady. Thus equipped, he will enter a drinking saloon, act in a manner to attract attention, and the suspicion will be readily excited that he is a woman in male attire. For several evenings past he has attracted much attention in the vicinity of the National Theatre. He even deceived some of the policemen, who arrested him a night or two ago for a female, and afterwards discharged him.
Another newspaper appears to have spoken to Wright or attended Wright’s court appearance.
The police in Cincinnatti [sic]. Newbern Daily Progress [New Bern, North Carolina] 28 December 1858; p. 2.
The police in Cincinnatti [sic] lately arrested a person with long hair, highly rouged cheeks and lips, and smooth, feminine features, the picture of a girl of twenty, but in male attire. It turned out that the person was entitled to wear that dress, and on inquiring why he put on the airs of a female, and painted his face, he coolly replied that he did it to tantalize the ladies; that he had frequently been arrested before, in St. Louis, New Orleans and other cities, under the supposition that he was a woman in men’s clothes, and appeared to think it a very funny joke.
So, prank? practice as an actor? a search for intimate companionship? presentation of true identity? Only James Wright knew.
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