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Female & Male Impersonator
Sheet Music

Over the years, I've collected images, almost all grabbed off eBay,
of old sheet music sporting female and male impersonators (or cross-dressers)
on their covers,
so I've consolidated them here. And I've added a number of newspaper
clippings as well. Click on each name to go to their page.

Below, likely the best book on early Male Impersonators

It reveals that Annie Hindle and Ella Wesner were the only ones where
a same-sex relationship could be documented (page 178)

below, from the book

Other "suspected" lesbians are Bijou Price, Blanche Selwyn and Josie Mansfield

Below, very intersting article about Black drag queen William Dorsey Swann.
I would not call him the first drag queen, but the story is quite good.
Link
or, if they take the article away, this pdf

Here's some sheet music about the guys....

In the 1880s there were many songs about Dudes, those young effeminate dandies...like this one...

The ladies all love me and call me a 'dear!"
I'm dudish by love! real dudish you know
and when they caress me I feel "awfully queer"
it's dudish, real dudish you know

Download Sheet Music

AND

Browse the Cornell University Postcard Collection

Hello, Dearie: Female Impersonators' Songbook

Non-Impersonator
William Haines
Exerpt from the book Wisecracker
&
Article on Haines from the Texas Triangle


And, one that did not really fit but is just here to amuse:

Below, another excellent source

http://scaa.sk.ca/gallery/genderimpersonators/index.html

Gee! But I Hate To Go Home Alone

Nope, no female or male impersonation going on here,
but I liked the insinuation between the title and photo
of vaudebille act Herman & Briscoe, 1922

Hear a version, by Billy Jones