Julia Boyer Reinstein

{{Infobox person

| name = Julia Boyer Reinstein

| image = Julia_Boyer_Reinstein.jpg

| alt =

| caption = Erie County Historical Federation president, 1966

| birth_name = Julia Agnes Boyer

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1906|11|03}}

| birth_place = Castile, New York, U.S.

| death_date = {{Death date and age|1998|07|18|1906|11|03}}

| death_place = Cheektowaga, New York, U.S.

| nationality = American

| other_names = Mrs. Victor Reinstein

| occupation = teacher, historian

| years_active = 1928–1992

| known_for = philanthropy

| notable_works =

}}

Julia Boyer Reinstein (November 3, 1906 – July 18, 1998) was an American teacher and historian who grew up in western New York and began her career teaching in Deadwood, South Dakota. After more than a decade of teaching, she became a founder of the Erie County Historical Federation and the first historian of Cheektowaga, New York. Committed to preserving the history of the area and educating citizens about their heritage, she and her husband were instrumental in donating properties for the establishment of a nature preserve, several libraries and to higher education. She was a subject of an anthropological study evaluating gender fluidity and the nature of being public about one's sexuality in the 1990s.

Early life

Julia Agnes Boyer was born on November 3, 1906, in Castile, New York,{{sfn|Social Security Death Index|1998}}{{sfn|U. S. Census|1930|p=22B}} to Julia (née Smith){{sfn|Reinstein|1979|p=99}}{{sfn|The Star-Gazette|1915|p=5}}{{sfn|The Wyoming County Times|1950|p=8}}{{sfn|U. S. Census|1920|p=9B}} and Lee Boyer.{{sfn|The Deadwood Pioneer-Times|1942|p=1}} Boyer's father was an engineer who worked with Western Union Telegraph Company and then on various power and light projects throughout the Great Plains including Kansas City and St. Louis, Missouri, and in Indian Territory, before becoming the general manager of the Consolidated Power and Light Company in the Black Hills of South Dakota.{{sfn|The Weekly Pioneer-Times|1933|p=2}} When Boyer was six weeks old, her mother left New York to join her father who was working on an engineering job in Wolseley, Saskatchewan. Her parents divorced when she was about {{frac|1|1|2}} years old, and her mother took her back to Castile, where she found work as a school teacher.{{sfn|Kennedy|1996|p=20}}{{sfn|Rupp|1999|p=124}} Her mother's family were prominent in rural western New York, where her grandfather, Frederick H. Smith, worked as a cattleman, lawyer, and banker.{{sfn|Jakobsen|Kennedy|2005|p=257}}{{sfn|Reinstein|1979|p=99}} Her great-aunt and -uncle, Julia A. (née Pickett) and Fred Norris, who helped raise Boyer, were the owners of the newspaper in Warsaw, New York.{{sfn|The Wyoming County Times|1950|p=8}}{{sfn|Kennedy|1996|p=20}}

In 1915, Boyer's mother married Charles Mason,{{sfn|The Star-Gazette|1915|p=5}} the owner of a general store in Silver Springs. Boyer remained in Warsaw, living with the Norrises, and visited her mother and step-father on weekends.{{sfn|Kennedy|1996|p=20}} Her father was not allowed to make contact with Boyer, per the terms of her parents' divorce, until she turned eighteen. In 1924 Boyer enrolled at Elmira College and began exploring her lesbian feelings. In 1926, her father made contact with her and they met. He was accepting of her lesbianism and the two began an intense relationship to get reacquainted.{{sfn|Kennedy|1996|p=21}} When she graduated in 1928 with a bachelor's degree and a teaching certificate, Boyer moved to Deadwood, South Dakota, to live with her father and step-mother, Sarah Isabel (née Rouch).{{sfn|Kennedy|1996|pp=21, 29}}{{sfn|Iowa Marriages, 1809–1992|1911}}

Arriving in Deadwood, Boyer began accompanying her father on business trips. She developed numerous flirtations with other women, and while she was open about her sexual attraction with her family and intimate circle, she remained very discreet, as was dictated by the times.{{sfn|Kennedy|1996|p=22}}{{sfn|Rupp|1999|p=125}} Her father, who often flew in his private plane to inspect the power plants he managed throughout Missouri, Nebraska, and South Dakota,{{sfn|Kennedy|1996|p=22}} supported her affairs, and even helped arrange them. In turn, she maintained discretion about his extramarital affairs.{{sfn|Kennedy|1996|p=26}}

Relationships & Career

With the advent of the Great Depression, Boyer took a job in one of the mining camps near Deadwood and worked there for two years. When she decided to continue her education in Chicago, her father did not want her to leave and used his influence to help her obtain employment in the Deadwood school system.{{sfn|Kennedy|1996|p=29}} In 1930, she met another teacher, Dorothy Brashier,{{cite web |title=1940 US Census |url=https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-L9MB-SXQ6?view=index&action=view |website=FamilySearch.org |access-date=28 May 2024}} and fell in love, and for the first time contemplated what a committed lesbian relationship was. They developed a circle of other lesbian couples,{{sfn|Kennedy|1996|pp=30–31}} and though they did not hide their relationships, they did not discuss them.{{sfn|Kennedy|1996|p=33}}

When Boyer's father died unexpectedly in 1933, she left Deadwood and returned to her mother's family in New York.{{sfn|Kennedy|1996|p=33, 37}} She obtained a teaching position in the conservative town of Castile, bringing Dorothy with her. During the week, she rented rooms in town, but on weekends she and Dorothy shared a suite her mother and step-father had created for them in their home. During their summer breaks, the couple rented an apartment in New York City, to facilitate their taking master's courses at Columbia University.{{sfn|Jakobsen|Kennedy|2005|p=257}}{{sfn|Kennedy|1996|p=37}}

In the early 1940s, Dorothy left Julia and Julia accepted employment in Buffalo. The circumstances, much different than those she experienced with the comfortable protection of her family, did not allow her to find female companions.{{sfn|Kennedy|1996|p=39}} Soon after she attained her master's degree in education from Columbia,{{sfn|Columbia University Catalogue|1945|p=271}} Boyer married widower Dr. Victor Reinstein on 28 September 1942 in Baltimore, Maryland,{{sfn|The Deadwood Pioneer-Times|1942|p=1}} and thereafter used the name Julia Boyer Reinstein, keeping her maiden name both as a fallback in case of invasion of the US by the Nazis and to acknowledge that she never truly gave up her lesbian orientation.{{sfn|Kennedy|1996|p=199}} After teaching in New York state for a decade, Boyer Reinstein worked for a year and a half at the University of Buffalo in the history department.{{sfn|The Sun|1966|p=3}} In 1953, she became the first historian of Cheektowaga and was one of the founders of the Erie County Historical Federation, serving as its president. When the Federation was founded there were only seven affiliates, which reached twenty-eight societies during her tenure.{{sfn|The Sun and Erie County Independent|1979|p=16}}{{sfn|Rey|1998}}

Boyer Reinstein was active in multiple endeavors, serving as vice chair of the Cheektowaga Public Library board and as a member of the Erie County Historical Preservation Committee.{{sfn|The Sun|1966|p=3}} She was a sought after speaker, and in addition to publishing map books and stories on county history,{{sfn|The Sun|1966|p=3}}{{sfn|The Springville Journal|1958|p=1}}{{sfn|The Sun and Erie County Independent|1963|p=7}}{{sfn|The Post-Standard|1970|p=17}} she and her husband became benefactors for the area. They donated the property for the Reinstein Woods Nature Preserve{{sfn|Rey|1998}}{{sfn|Fisher|1994|p=20}} and built the Anna M. Reinstein Library in Cheektowaga.{{sfn|Wisniewski|1979|p=6}} After her husband's death in 1984, Boyer Reinstein resumed her life as a lesbian.{{sfn|Oregon State University|2006}} In 1990, Boyer Reinstein began a series of donations to her alma mater to enable Elmira College to establish the Department of Women's Studies. An annual symposium in her honor is held by the college to promote scholarship on women.{{sfn|Elmira College|2015}} The couple also donated funds to establish the Julia Boyer Reinstein Library in Cheektowaga and the Buffalo History Museum's Julia Boyer Reinstein Center on the museum's campus.{{sfn|Rey|1998}}

Death and legacy

Boyer Reinstein died on July 18, 1998, and her memorial was held four days later in Cheektowaga, New York.{{sfn|Rey|1998}} Reinstein was the subject of a 1996 anthropological study of lesbian life done by Elizabeth Lapovsky Kennedy, evaluating the difference between middle-class and upper-class lesbian lives.{{sfn|Hogan|Hudson|1999|p=324}} Kennedy undertook the study to examine the understanding of what it meant to be "out" as a lesbian, women's sexual energy in the period, and the acceptance of Boyer Reinstein's sexuality by her parents.

Due to her family's prominence in their community, and the taboos of talking about intimacy publicly, lesbians in her social class were protected and allowed to live their lives as long as they remained in traditional appearance as dutiful daughters and respected social niceties.{{sfn|Kennedy|1996|pp=16, 33–34}} Sexuality was seen as a private concern and rumors were gracefully ignored to preserve one's standing in the community.{{sfn|Kennedy|1996|p=39}}

By examining Boyer Reinstein's life, the complexities of a closeted existence emerged, showing that for women in upper classes, being in the closet was not oppressive, but rather, allowed them the freedom to express themselves as long as their expression was in the private, rather than public sphere.{{sfn|Kennedy|1996|pp=16–17}}

References

=Citations=

=Bibliography=

{{cite news|last1=Fisher|first1=Forrest|title=Spotting deer in majestic velvet|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/11927081/the_sun_and_the_erie_county_independent/|access-date=25 June 2017|work=The Sun|date=August 4, 1994|location=Hamburg, New York|page=20|via = Newspapers.com}} {{open access}}
{{cite book|last1=Hogan|first1=Steve|last2=Hudson|first2=Lee|title=Completely Queer: the Gay and Lesbian Encyclopedia|date=1999|publisher=Henry Holt|location=New York|isbn=0-8050-6031-6|edition=1st Owl Books|url=https://archive.org/stream/completelyqueerg00hoga#page/324/mode/1up/search/boyer}}
{{cite book|last1=Jakobsen|first1=Janet R.|last2=Kennedy|first2=Elizabeth Lapovsky|editor-last1=Bernstein|editor-first1=Elizabeth|editor-last2=Schaffner|editor-first2=Laurie|title=Regulating Sex: The Politics of Intimacy and Identity|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_dCSAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA257|year=2005|publisher=Routledge|location=New York City, New York|isbn=978-1-135-93403-3|chapter=Sex and Freedom|pages=247–270}}
{{cite book|last1=Kennedy|first1=Elizabeth Lapovsky|editor1-last=Lewin|editor1-first=Ellen|title=Inventing lesbian cultures in America|date=1996|publisher=Beacon Press|location=Boston|isbn=0-8070-7942-1|pages=[https://archive.org/details/inventinglesbian00lewi/page/15 15–39]|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/inventinglesbian00lewi/page/15|chapter="But we would never talk about it": The Structures of Lesbian Discretion in South Dakota, 1928-1933}}
{{cite journal|last1=Reinstein|first1=Julia Boyer|title=A Postscript to 'Alaska Calling'|journal=Historical Wyoming|date=April 1979|volume=XXVI|issue=4|pages=99–100|url=http://fultonhistory.com/Process%20small/Historical%20Wyoming%20County/Historical%20Wyoming%20County%20pdf%20files/Historical%20Wyoming%20County%20April%201979.pdf|access-date=25 June 2017|publisher=Wyoming County Historian's Office|location=Warsaw, New York}}
{{cite news|last1=Rey|first1=Jay|title=Town Bids Farewell to Julia Reinstein|url=http://buffalonews.com/1998/07/22/town-bids-farewell-to-julia-reinstein/|access-date=24 June 2017|publisher=The Buffalo News|date=July 22, 1998|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170624202614/http://buffalonews.com/1998/07/22/town-bids-farewell-to-julia-reinstein/|archive-date=24 June 2017|location=Buffalo, New York}}
{{cite book|last=Rupp|first=Leila J.|title=A Desired Past: A Short History of Same-Sex Love in America|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oSv3xWJeaFcC&pg=PT141|year=1999|publisher=University of Chicago Press|location=Chicago, Illinois|isbn=978-0-226-73155-1}}
{{cite news|last1=Wisniewski|first1=John|title=New Library Called Regional Asset|url=https://newspaperarchive.com/susun-wilkinson-celebrity-clipping-jun-15-1979-314855/|access-date=25 June 2017|publisher=The Post-Standard|date=June 15, 1979|location=Syracuse, New York|page=6|via = Newspaperarchive.com}} {{open access}}
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{{cite web|ref={{harvid|U. S. Census|1930}}|author=|title=1930 United States Census: Deadwood, Lawrence County, South Dakota|url=https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33SQ-GR8W-93PQ?i=43&cc=1810731|website=FamilySearch|publisher=National Archives and Records Administration|access-date=24 June 2017|location=Washington D.C.|date=25 April 1930|id=NARA microfilm series T626, roll 2226}}
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{{cite news|ref={{harvid|The Deadwood Pioneer-Times|1942}}|author=|title=Boyer-Reinstein|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/11902524/boyerreinstein_the_deadwood/|access-date=24 June 2017|publisher=The Deadwood Pioneer-Times|date=October 21, 1942|location=Deadwood, South Dakota|page=1|via = Newspapers.com}} {{open access}}
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{{cite news|ref={{harvid|The Weekly Pioneer-Times|1933}}|author=|title=Death Claims Lee Boyer at Hospital Here|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/11902994/the_weekly_pioneertimes/|access-date=24 June 2017|publisher=The Weekly Pioneer-Times|date=July 6, 1933|location=Deadwood, South Dakota|page=2|via = Newspapers.com}} {{open access}}
{{cite book|ref={{harvid|Columbia University Catalogue|1945}}|author=|chapter=Degrees Conferred 1942–1943: Teachers College Master of Arts|title=Catalogue: 1943–1944 and 1944–1945|date=1945|pages=270–286 |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nnc2.ark:/13960/t7mp5qv2z;view=1up;seq=281|access-date=25 June 2017|publisher=Columbia University|location=New York City, New York}}
{{cite web|ref={{harvid|Oregon State University|2006}}|author=|title=Final Lecture in Horning Series to Examine Life of Julia Boyer Reinstein|url=http://oregonstate.edu/ua/ncs/archives/2006/apr/final-lecture-horning-series-examine-life-julia-boyer-reinstein|website=News and Research Communications|publisher=Oregon State University|access-date=25 June 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170625231402/http://oregonstate.edu/ua/ncs/archives/2006/apr/final-lecture-horning-series-examine-life-julia-boyer-reinstein|archive-date=25 June 2017|location=Corvallis, Oregon|date=April 25, 2006}}
{{cite news|ref={{harvid|The Wyoming County Times|1950}}|author=|title=Fred Norris|url=http://nyshistoricnewspapers.org/lccn/sn84035923/1950-05-18/ed-1/seq-8/#date1=01%2F01%2F1924&index=0&date2=12%2F31%2F1955&searchType=advanced&SearchType=phrase&sequence=0&words=Julia+Mason+S&proxdistance=&to_year=1955&rows=20&ortext=&from_year=1924&proxtext=&phrasetext=Julia+S.+Mason&andtext=&dateFilterType=range&page=1|access-date=24 June 2017|publisher=The Wyoming County Times|date=May 18, 1950|location=Warsaw, New York|page=8}}
{{cite news|ref={{harvid|The Post-Standard|1970}}|author=|title=Genealogists Plan Workshop this Weekend|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/11902556/the_poststandard/|access-date=25 June 2017|publisher=The Post-Standard|date=June 24, 1970|location=Syracuse, New York|page=17|via = Newspapers.com}} {{open access}}
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{{cite web|ref={{harvid|Elmira College|2015}}|author=|title=History and Archives|url=http://sites.elmira.edu/wms/archives|website=Elmira College|access-date=25 June 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170625225611/http://sites.elmira.edu/wms/archives|archive-date=25 June 2017|location=Elmira, New York|date=2015}}
{{cite web|ref={{harvid|Iowa Marriages, 1809–1992|1911}}|author=|title=Iowa Marriages, 1809–1992: Lee M. Boyer/Sarah Isabel Rouch|url=https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XJRS-3X3|website=FamilySearch|publisher=Jefferson County Courthouse|access-date=25 June 2017|location=Fairfield, Iowa|date=14 September 1911|id=FHL microfilm #1750233, reference 2:3R89GFT}}
{{cite web|ref={{harvid|Social Security Death Index|1998}}|author=|title=United States Social Security Death Index: Julia B Reinstein|url=https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:JKKP-T6Y|website=FamilySearch|publisher=U.S. Social Security Administration|access-date=24 June 2017|location=Alexandria, Virginia|date=18 July 1998}}
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