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Murray H. Hall (1841 − January 16, 1901) was a
"The Mystery of Murray Hall,"
''Smithsonian'', July 21, 2011.
Gender Bender: Mary Masquerades as Murray
"Murray H. Hall Residence"
NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project Burials at Mount Olivet Cemetery (Queens) Politicians from New York City People from Greenwich Village 1901 deaths People from Govan 1841 births Scottish transgender people American transgender people Transgender history in the United States Scottish emigrants to the United States Transgender male politicians Scottish LGBT politicians LGBT people from New York (state) American LGBT politicians 1900s in LGBT history {{NewYork-politician-stub
Murray H. Hall (1841 − January 16, 1901) was a New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
bail bondsman and Tammany Hall
Tammany Hall, also known as the Society of St. Tammany, the Sons of St. Tammany, or the Columbian Order, was a New York City political organization founded in 1786 and incorporated on May 12, 1789 as the Tammany Society. It became the main loc ...
politician who became famous on his death in 1901, when it was revealed that he was assigned female at birth.
Born in Govan
Govan ( ; Cumbric?: ''Gwovan'?''; Scots: ''Gouan''; Scottish Gaelic: ''Baile a' Ghobhainn'') is a district, parish, and former burgh now part of south-west City of Glasgow, Scotland. It is situated west of Glasgow city centre, on the south ba ...
, Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...
as Mary Anderson, Hall reportedly migrated to America after being reported to the police by his first wife and lived as a man for nearly 25 years, able to vote and to work as a politician at a time when women were denied such rights. He also ran a commercial "intelligence office." At the time of his death, he resided with his second wife and their adopted daughter. His assigned sex had been a secret even to his own daughter and friends, whom continued to respect his expression after death. After his death, an aide to a state senator remarked "If he was a woman he ought to have been born a man, for he lived and looked like one."
His last home was an apartment in Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village ( , , ) is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street to the north, Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the south, and the Hudson River to the west. Greenwich Village ...
, half a block north of the Jefferson Market Courthouse (now the Jefferson Market Library
The Jefferson Market Branch of the New York Public Library, once known as the Jefferson Market Courthouse, is a National Historic Landmark located at 425 Avenue of the Americas (Sixth Avenue), on the southwest corner of West 10th Street, in Green ...
). The building was renumbered in 1929, when Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
's Sixth Avenue
Sixth Avenue – also known as Avenue of the Americas, although this name is seldom used by New Yorkers, p.24 – is a major thoroughfare in New York City's borough of Manhattan, on which traffic runs northbound, or "uptown". It is commercial ...
was extended south, and is now 453 6th Avenue. The NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project lists the building.
Hall died from breast cancer
Breast cancer is cancer that develops from breast tissue. Signs of breast cancer may include a lump in the breast, a change in breast shape, dimpling of the skin, milk rejection, fluid coming from the nipple, a newly inverted nipple, or a re ...
, treatment for which he seemed to have delayed for fear of exposing his assigned sex. He was buried in women's clothes in an unmarked grave in Mount Olivet Cemetery.
References
Further reading
* The San Francisco Lesbian and Gay History Project, "She Even Chewed Tobacco": A Pictorial Narrative of Passing Women in America, ''in Hidden from History: Reclaiming the Gay and Lesbian Past''. Edited by Martin Duberman, Martha Vicinus and George Chauncey, Jr. (New York: Meridian, 1990), 183–194. * Karen Abbott"The Mystery of Murray Hall,"
''Smithsonian'', July 21, 2011.
External links
Gender Bender: Mary Masquerades as Murray
"Murray H. Hall Residence"
NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project Burials at Mount Olivet Cemetery (Queens) Politicians from New York City People from Greenwich Village 1901 deaths People from Govan 1841 births Scottish transgender people American transgender people Transgender history in the United States Scottish emigrants to the United States Transgender male politicians Scottish LGBT politicians LGBT people from New York (state) American LGBT politicians 1900s in LGBT history {{NewYork-politician-stub