Asexual and Aromantic Collection

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Asexual and Aromantic people, like lesbians and bisexual people, are hard to find in the records from the 1800s. This is in part because while the earliest records we have for these terms come from between 1860-1890 and the inclusion of Asexuality in the 1948 Kinsey Scale allowed for broader use in medical and academic research, the widespread use of these terms by the general public is liked to the creation of the Asexual Visibility and Education Network in 2001. 

Usually, when people's stories are told in the newspapers in the 1800s, it's because they've been arrested. Asexuality was not and has never been illegal, neither has being a lesbian or being bisexual. In addition, society in the 1800s was deeply heteronormative and amatonormativitive meaning that despite an individual’s personal sexual or romantic orientation there was significant financial and social pressure to marry someone of an opposite gender and to have children. 

While being Asexual or Aromantic (which relate to rarely or never experiencing sexual or romantic attraction) does not inherently preclude someone from wanting to or choosing to marry or have a sexual relationship, looking into the past the nuance between experiencing attraction and engaging in what appears from the outside to be a sexual and romantic relationship is often lost.

So we often look for suggestions of Asexual and Aromantic people among reports of those who have more obviously defied the social norms of the time - such as not marrying or being reported to have pursued anyone of any gender, being proudly celibate or speaking about a lack of interest in sexual or romantic relationships. 

When there are articles that suggest Asexuality or Aromanticism, you'll find them here.