by Jess Wilton
Threads of gender dysphoria unite the yellowing pages of adolescent diaries with the smudged print of typewritten letters in the Erica Rutherford fonds at the Prince Edward Island Public Archives. A trans artist who settled on Prince Edward Island (PEI), Rutherford passed away in 2008. She left behind numerous artworks that have been on display at the Venice Biennale as well as an autobiography and many records located at Archives PEI. Her archival record in this post will be primarily explored through her adolescent diary and a few letters. This illuminates experiences of gender dysphoria before and after her transition. It also sheds light on an important figure in PEI trans history.
Born on February 1st 1923, Rutherford was assigned male at birth in Scotland. In 1975, she legally changed her name to Erica and, in the following year, received gender affirming surgery. For much of her life, Rutherford was a transient artist living in England, South Africa, Switzerland, Spain, the United States, and Canada. In 1985, she permanently settled in eastern PEI having already lived many lives as she details in her autobiography Nine Lives: The Autobiography of Erica Rutherford. At different times she was a painter, actor, screenwriter, children’s book illustrator,clothing store owner, and officer in the British Occupation Army of the Rhine. In 2009, her records were added to the Public Archives and Records Office of Prince Edward Island after her death. They represent the archive’s only available records with explicit themes of gender identity and dysphoria.
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