Diane Torr Papers
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Abstract
Diane Torr (1948-2017) was an artist, writer, and educator known for her drag king performances, "Man for a Day" workshops on movement and gender expression, and artistic interrogations of conceptions of gender. Torr moved to New York in 1976, where she become involved in the city's Downtown arts scene and helped to establish the drag king culture both domestically and internationally. The Diane Torr Papers contain ephemera, administrative documents, and film and video recodings that document Torr's performances and exhibits; workshops, courses, and seminars; film and video work; written works and journals; community organizing and activism work; and personal life.
Biographical Note
Diane Torr (1948-2017) was an artist, writer, and educator known for her drag king performances, "Man for a Day" workshops on movement and gender expression, and artistic interrogations of conceptions of gender. She worked in multiple mediums, including dance, film, installation art, and performance art.
Torr studied Dance Education at Dartington College of Arts in England and moved to New York in 1976 following graduation, where she become involved in the city's Downtown arts scene. She regularly performed at the Mudd Club, Club 57, The Pyramid Club, MoMA PS1, Franklin Furnace, Performance Space 122, WOW Cafe, and La Mama Theater. She was an original member of the female art band DISBAND, along with Martha Wilson, Ingrid Sischy, Ilona Granet, and Donna Henes. Her performances critically examined gender and sexuality, and the performative nature of femininity and masculinity.
Torr's earliest dance performances were in 1977, and her first performance in drag was "Arousing Reconstructions" in 1981. Torr performed several international tours, including "Amoebic Evolution" and "Catastrophe and Beguilement" in the late 1980s, "Ready Aye Ready (A Standing Cock Has Nae Conscience)" in the early 1990s, "Drag Kings and Subjects" from the 1990s through the 2010's, and "Donald Does Dusty" in the 2000's. She organized the "Go Drag!" Berlin drag performance festival with Bridge Markland in 2002, and participated in numerous exhibitions at galleries such as the Glasgow Gallery of Modern Art, NYU's Grey Art Gallery, and the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston.
Torr was an integral part of the "young kings" movement, establishing a scene of drag kings in 1980's New York City. This community of drag kings is the subject of the 2002 film Venus Boyz. Some of her most performed characters include Danny King ("Drag Kings and Subjects"), a "middle-aged, middle-American, middle-management guy" who "represents a stereotype of what it is to be a man"; Jack Spratt, a singer/songwriter Cockney character who is a fan of the Who; Hamish McAllister ("Ready Aye Ready"), an aficionado of the Scottish poet Robert Burns; and Charles Beresford, a gay man based on one of Torr's friends who passed away in 1992 from HIV/AIDS. Collaborators and contemporaries include Annie Sprinkle, Johnny Science, Bridge Markland, and Del La Grace Volcano. Torr was also involved in many community organizations, including Guerrilla Girls, PONY (Prostitutes of New York), FTM International, and F2M Fraternity.
She received her MFA from Bard College in 2004, and spent her later years in Scotland, where she was a visiting lecturer at Glasgow School of Art. In 2010, Torr published the book Sex, Drag, and Male Roles: Investigating Gender as Performance, which documents her career in the context of a wider history of female-to-male cross-dressing and performance. Diane Torr passed away in 2017.
Arrangement
This collection is arranged into seven series, with Series II and III further arranged into subseries:
Series I. Performances and Exhibitions
Series II. Workshops and Teaching
Subseries II.A. Drag Workshops
Subseries II.B. Courses and Seminars
Series III. Film and Television
Subseries III.A. Film and Television Works
Subseries III.B. Film Festivals and Screenings
Series IV. Written Works
Series V. Community Organizing
Series VI. Press Coverage
Series VII. Personal Files
Scope and Contents
The Diane Torr Papers (1907-2016) consist of materials created and collected by Diane Torr, documenting her career as a performance artist working in dance and drag king performance, a filmmaker, and an author. They also document her personal life, her involvement in community organizations, and the larger contexts of examinations and interrogations of gender identity and expression through artistic means.
The bulk of the materials in this collection document Torr's drag king performances and her "Man for a Day Workshops," including posters, photographs in analog and digital format, video recordings of performances on various formats, ephemera publicizing individual performances or festivals Torr participated in, and clippings of press coverage Torr received. In addition to her "Man for a Day" workshops, the collection documents Torr's teaching career, including syllabi, notes, ephemera, and recordings from university courses, movement workshops, primary school performances, and academic lectures.
Torr's film and video work, as well as her television appearances, are portrayed in analog and digital recordings, production files, and festival and screening ephemera. This collection also includes Torr's original writings on issues related to gender performance, as well as her notebooks, journals, and diaries, and research files on topics related to gender identity, drag performance, women's rights, and the LGBT community.
Torr's involvement in community organizations and political activism groups is portrayed in newsletters, bulletins, zines, ephemera, awards, meeting minutes and notes, correspondence, contact lists, and budget reports for groups including FTM International, PONY (Prostitutes of New York), and the Guerrilla Girls. Her personal life is also well documented in planners, address books, contact lists, correspondence, curricula vitae and biographical statements, and personal notes.
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Conditions Governing Access
Materials are open without restrictions.
Conditions Governing Use
This collection is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use materials in the collection in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).
Preferred Citation
Identification of item, date; Diane Torr Papers; MSS 527; box number; folder number or item identifier; Fales Library and Special Collections, New York University.
Location of Materials
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Donated by Martina Meijer, Diane Torr's daughter, in August 2017; the accession number associated with this gift is 2018.024. An additional accretion of materials was donated by Martina Meijer in August of 2018. The accession number associated with the accretion is 2018.097.
Born-Digital Access Policies and Procedures
Advance notice is required for the use of computer records. Original physical digital media is restricted. An access terminal for born-digital materials in the collection is available by appointment for reading room viewing and listening only. Researchers may view an item's original container and/or carrier, but the physical carriers themselves are not available for use because of preservation concerns.
Audiovisual Access Policies and Procedures
Audiovisual materials have not been preserved and may not be available to researchers. Materials not yet digitized will need to have access copies made before they can be used. To request an access copy, or if you are unsure if an item has been digitized, please contact NYU Special Collections (special.collections@nyu.edu, 212-998-2596) with the collection name, collection number, and a description of the item(s) requested. A staff member will respond to you with further information.
Appraisal
During processing in 2026, the following materials were deaccessioned from the collection:
One large plastic banner due to its degraded condition;
4 linear feet of paper materials, including ephemera duplicates, work by Torr's students, personal correspondence and photographs, and sensitive administrative and financial records;
5 linear feet of published texts, including newspapers, magazines, and books;
11 analog audiovisual recordings that were blank, commercial, or personal in content;
and 105 born-digital recordings that were commercial, duplicative, blank, or personal in content.
About this Guide
Processing Information
At the time of accessioning, materials were rehoused in archival boxes and folders, maintaining original order. Loose materials were housed in folders but not grouped or arranged in any particular way.
An accretion of materials was donated by Martina Meijer in August 2018 (Boxes 32-54). At the time of accessioning, materials were placed in acid-free folders and boxes. Original caption information, when available, was transcribed onto acid-free archival folders. Materials that were loose was foldered and titled. All materials were organized in the order the content was received.
In 2026, this collection was arranged by an archivist. Paper materials were placed in acid-free folders in manuscript boxes, oversized materials were foldered and housed appropriately according to their size, and audiovisual materials were placed in format-appropriate housing. Paper, audiovisual, and born-digital materials were arranged intellectually and their description was integrated.
During processing, many posters were flattened and treated for rips and tears by the Preservation Department. Some folded elements inside Torr's journals were flattened and foldered separately. Lanyards from film festivals were dismantled, and festival badges were placed together in photo sleeves. Two cracked VHS cartridges were replaced.
In 2025-2026, born-digital carriers containing data were forensically imaged, analyzed, and arranged in Forensic Toolkit. The born-digital audio and video recordings were arranged separately in directories on locally-mounted networked storage and intellectually integrated into appropriate series. New York University Libraries follow professional standards and best practices when imaging, ingesting, and processing born-digital material in order to maintain the integrity and authenticity of the content.
