Digital Transgender Archive

"Amazing Sex Discovery"

Content Warning: This item contains transphobic language. An article from the journal Medical Sentinel about the outing of Dr. Alan Hart early in his medical career. The author of the piece expresses uncertainty about Hart's identity and assigned gender at birth, but refers to the possibility that he was assigned female and is living as a man as "a monstrous, inconceivable joke [...] played on the children of our state." Dr. Alan Hart (1890-1962) was an American physician, novelist, and trans man. Hart devoted his professional life to the study and treatment of tuberculosis, particularly its diagnosis via X-ray. He was also the author of four novels on medical themes and a nonfiction book about X-rays. As a child, Hart presented as a boy when possible, and published his writing using his initials or the name Robert Allen Bamford. During his education, he wore traditionally feminine clothing before adopting a male identity permanently in his 20s. Hart began medically transitioning during medical school and lived as a man from the late 1910s until his death.