Collection contains six portfolios of Mariette Pathy Allen's work, dating from the 1960s to 2016, totaling 208 color and black-and-white large-format photographs. There is also a papers series dating from 1981 to 2022.
The photographs document aspects of human sexuality and gender identity in the U.S.; the connections between people and art; spirituality, ritual, and gender identity in Burma and Thailand; and the social life of people in the suburbs and on the beaches of Philadelphia and New Jersey. Many of these works have been published in photobook format.
The first portfolio, Transformations: Crossdressers and Those Who Love Them, contains eleven 15 1/2 x 23 inch color prints that document the everyday lives of crossdressers in the U.S.
The second portfolio, The Woman Who Lives Inside: Portraits of Men as Women, houses 16 gelatin silver and 15 color portraits of men in the U.S. who identify as female.
The third project contains Allen's earliest work and is titled NJ/PA 1968. The 28 16x20 inch gelatin silver photographs feature people at beaches and in the suburbs of New Jersey and Philadelphia.
A fourth portfolio consists of 30 black-and-white, 16x20 inch gelatin silver photographs titled People and Art, taken between 1968 and 2000. Images show artists at work, people looking at art, scenes from the 1999 Venice Bienniale festival, and settings in Paris, London, and Budapest.
The fifth portfolio consists of 31 color and black-and-white prints from Allen's 2004 book, The Gender Frontier, documenting transgender and transsexual people with their partners, participating in conferences and political rallies, and undergoing corrective surgeries.
The final project is titled Transcendents: Spirit Mediums in Burma and Thailand. The 27 color inkjet prints feature portraits of mediums, chiefly men with gender-variant identities, who perform a 21st century version of ancient spiritual service originally practiced by women.
The collection is completed by a Papers series, which comprises print materials dating up to 2022 in the form of exhibit and gallery publicity, photobook proofs, a book dummy of "The Woman Within," and articles about Mariette Pathy Allen's career and work. Two CD-Roms of Allen's photographs in digital form are also included in this series.
Processed and described by Karen Glynn and John Mayrose, May 2007.
Addition 2010-0039 processed and described by Meghan Lyon, March 2010.
Updated by Megan Lewis, 2015.
Addition 2021-0121 processed and described by Leah Tams, November 2021.
Addition 2023-0009 processed and described by Lou Bennett and Paula Jeannet, May 2023.
Accessions represented in this collection guide: 2006-0028, 2006-0133, 2007-0068, 2008-0121, 2010-0039, 2021-0121, and 2023-0009.
