As part of the Public Engagement Workshop held during the Centre for Victorian Studies Colloquium 2026, participants worked with materials from Royal Holloway Archives and Special Collections to create digital public-facing outputs inspired by archival research. Led by Charlotte Bookham, a doctoral placement student with the Archives and Special Collections team, the workshop invited nineteenth-century scholars to reimagine archival materials through contemporary digital formats. The winning entry, produced by Taryn Power, Nic Chrenek and Adrian Wisnicki, explored the life and public image of music hall performer Hetty King through a contemporary social media format. The post was selected as the winning entry following a vote by workshop participants after presentations of the projects developed during the session.

Winning Post:  
‘Why you so obsessed with me...’

This is a postcard of male impersonator Hetty King, who was active from 1902-1972. This photograph is from 1906. King is pictured wearing a sailor’s uniform – she was particularly well-known for her performances as sailors and soldiers, allegedly imitating their mannerisms almost perfectly. She was known for her appeal to both men and women – despite presenting as a man, she maintained a feminine performance by winking at the audience, often (as likely in the case of a performance conducted in the costume pictured) set to songs such as “All the Nice Girls Love a Sailor.”

These postcards were sold at performances, and sometimes signed by performers, as evidenced by several other items in this collection. Some even show signs of being hung up, perhaps on the vanity of an admirer. The message written on the back of the postcard notes to its addressee that King “looks like WB” – who could this WB be, and why does the writer think King looks like this person? Could an admirer of King’s – perhaps a woman – have purchased this postcard to share with a fellow admirer? Research into King does not indicate that she herself had any interest in women, but such details are often left out of lesbian histories. 

Credits: 
Text by Nic Chrenek
Editing by Charlotte Bookham
Images from Royal Holloway Archives and Wikimedia Commons
Audio: ‘Obsessed by Mariah Carey’