The Hart of it All
The chances are that very few of you know who our next subject is.I had no notion of him until his story was brought to my attention by a peer. And what I learned put what I understood about Transgender history on it's ear.
I introduce to you Dr. Alan L. Hart a physician that was assigned female at birth and was also the first recorded instance in this country to undergo gender confirmation surgery.
Dr. Alan L. Hart
(1890 - 1962)
Alan Hart grew up in Albany, Oregon and attended Albany College (now Lewis & Clark College) and Stanford University. He obtained a Doctor of Medicine Degree from the University of Oregon Medical Department in Portland (now the Oregon Health Sciences University School of Medicine).
Hart married Inez Stark in California in February, 1918, using the name Robert Allen Bamford and later began medical practice in Southwest Oregon at Gardiner Hospital.
Like all that break boundaries Hart's time in school and later career were tumultuous bringing heartbreak and social discrimination on a level rarely seen for the times. It was also at this time that Hart was able to secure surgery that would remove a source of monthly reminders of his physiology.
It was during his time in medical school, before he began his transition, that Hart realized that his attraction to women was considered abnormal by contemporary society. After her graduation, he sought psychiatric help from one of his professors, J. Allen Gilbert, whose treatment of Hart is documented in his 1920 case study “Homosexuality and Its Treatment.” Hart discussed his sexual orientation with Gilbert, who at first tried analysis and hypnosis as means of reverting his sexuality.
Hart asked Gilbert to perform a full hysterectomy, citing a eugenic argument that persons with “abnormal inversions” be sterilized. Following the procedure, he had his hair cut and acquired a male wardrobe. With that transformation, Alberta Lucille Hart became Alan L. Hart. “She made her exit as a female,” Gilbert wrote, “and started as a male with a new hold on life and ambitions worthy of her high degree of intellectuality.”
Like many on the gender spectrum Hart's lack of gender normativity was evident from an early age and was a significant facet of his identity even as a child. This showed his identity was firmly rooted in his maleness and no amount of social pressure would dissuade him he was anything but male. Young Lucille was different, even then. Boy’s clothes just felt natural. Lucille always regarded herself as a boy and begged her family to cut her hair and let her wear trousers. Lucille disliked dolls but enjoyed playing doctor. She hated traditional girl tasks, preferring farm work with the menfolk instead. The self reliance that became a lifelong trait was evident early: once when she accidentally chopped off her fingertip with an ax, Lucille dressed it herself, saying nothing about it to the family. Socially, Lucille just didn’t seem to fit in with either boys or girls. School was a different matter. A voracious reader, Lucille became an excellent student and in 1908 enrolled at Albany College (now Lewis & Clark College). Lucille continued excelling academically and starred on the women’s debate team. At college Lucille’s ongoing attraction to women blossomed and she fell passionately in love with a fellow student, Eva Cushman. Their affair became so apparent that the student newspaper teasingly noted “Eva Cushman and Lucille Hart hereby announce that it is all a joke about them being in love and about to get married.” In that age, love between women still tended to fly under society’s radar. But while their relationship tended to escape serious notice, the continuing change in Lucille’s appearance and behavior was becoming all too apparent. Lucille began wearing strictly tailored men’s clothing and hats while smoking, drinking, and generally acting like a man. Alarmed by the attention Lucille’s masculine demeanor was receiving, Eva broke off their affair and left Lucille, alone and in debt.
Persevering, Lucille managed to graduate and in 1913 enrolled at the University of Oregon Medical College (Portland). While there, Lucille fell in love again, this time with a beautiful woman named Maude Dabney. Unhappily married, Dabney filed for divorce, which was granted. But rather than opt for a relationship with a poor medical student, Dabney abruptly decided to run off with a wealthy older man instead. Dabney’s parting words were bitter, saying she “loved (Lucille) sincerely but did not have the nerve to face the criticism that would follow their union.” Lucille never forgot the pain of Dabney’s desertion.
By 1917 Hart’s personal conflict was becoming intolerable. Citing a childhood phobia with loud noises, Hart sought counseling with a respected teacher, Dr. J. Allen Gilbert. During that time Hart also underwent a legal change of name, with the school yearbook showing “Alan Lucill Hart.” Despite these issues Hart graduated top of the class in 1917, securing an M.D. from the University of Oregon.
Hart's medical career was fraught with outings necessitating frequent relocations and new employment. This was hard not only on him but his relationships as well. Despite his groundbreaking work using an x-ray machine in the treatment of tuberculosis Hart found getting a job more and more difficult with each outing.
In his later years Dr Hart became an author and wrote several books that received no small acclaim. Hart's first novel, Doctor Mallory (1935), is the story of an idealistic general practitioner in a small town in Oregon. It is based on Hart's experience practicing medicine in Gardiner. After the publication of Doctor Mallory, Hart wrote that one of his ambitions was "to be an 'unofficial observer' of the medical profession during the remainder of my life" and "to write a novel about a research institute, another about hospitals, another about a family of doctors." He eventually wrote all three. Hart's other novels are In the Lives of Men (1937) and Doctor Finlay Sees it Through (1942).
Hart's novels received a fair amount of critical attention and were reviewed in The New York Times, The New York Herald-Tribune, Saturday Review of Literature and other leading publications of the times. Intriguingly, in reviewing In the Lives of Men, the Saturday Review's critic wrote that, "...for a doctor, he seems to know surprisingly little of women. His portraits of them are little more than profile sketches. Those he approves are colorless and negative, the others incredibly cold and selfish." Although Hart was one of the few pre-World War II writers in the Pacific Northwest who wrote novels dealing with social issues, he has been overlooked in studies of the region's literature.
Alan and Edna Hart moved to Connecticut in 1946 and purchased a home in West Hartford in 1950. They were active in the community and in the Unitarian Church, and lived together until Alan died of heart disease on July 1, 1962. In accordance with Alan's will, his body was cremated. The ashes were shipped to Port Angeles, Washington for scattering. The will also provided that no memorial be erected or created, and he instructed his attorney to destroy certain letters and photographs contained in a bank safety deposit box and in a locked box in his home.
