A Place at the Table
Introduction
Gertrude Stein and Alice Toklas in Venice in 1908
Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas are the hosts of our party. The Head Table includes one of the most unusual and evocative objects in the Bancroft Library’s collections: a teapot once owned by Alice B. Toklas, filled in 1937 with rose petals from Gertrude Stein’s garden in Bilignan, France. The petals are still as fragrant as the day they were gathered. Next to our hosts are the transsexual entertainer Christine Jorgensen, the Laguna Pueblo berdache potter Ruth, the blues singer Ma Rainey, the movie star Ramón Novarro, writer/activist James Baldwin, drag entertainer José Sarria, comedian Margaret Cho, and painter John Singer Sargent. Imagine the dinner conversation.
Teapot or cream pitcher belonging to Alice B. Toklas
Double portrait photograph of Ruth
Ramón Novarro
Margaret Cho's Revolution
Christine Jorgensen
Gertrude Stein