06/02/2026
🌈 Happy Pride Month 🌈
The history of Delaware's LGBTQ+ community is long and enduring, and we are committed to sharing their stories. The people included in this image are part of this history from the late 1800s and early 1900s.
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Mary Askew Mather (center) was a suffragist and an advocate for education. She was born in Pennsylvania in 1860 but moved to Delaware in the 1880s. In her journal, Mather documented her romance with another female classmate at Smith College, though the relationship did not last after college. She later developed a relationship with woman in Delaware named Alice P. Smyth, who became her life partner and close collaborator. After Mather died in 1925, Smyth funded a free rural library service as a memorial to her.
Alice Dunbar-Nelson (left) was a poet, author, suffragist, and anti-lynching activist who lived in Wilmington, DE, from 1902 to 1932. Throughout her life, she wrote privately in her diaries about romantic relationships with women while publicly being involved in heterosexual marriages. Many of her poems also have references to romance and desire between women.
Edward Bringhurst V (right) was born in Wilmington, DE, in 1884 and moved into Rockwood Mansion with his family in 1892. Although there is no definitive evidence of his sexuality, there is evidence of gender expression and courtship behaviors that allows historians to recognize him as a q***r person. He never married and consistently resisted efforts to be matched into a courtship. There are also photographs of him dressing in women's fashions, a private defiance of gender norms.
While we cannot place modern labels on any of these historical figures, we can recognize their place in the LGBTQ+ history of Delaware.
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Image Description: Background has a rainbow gradient and a heart pattern. Layered images are a rainbow gradient graphic of Delaware, a drawing of Mary Askew Mather, a photo of Alice Dunbar-Nelson, and a photo of Edward Bringhurst V.
Image Credits/Sources:
"Alice Dunbar-Nelson." LGBTQ+ History of Delaware: We Have Always Been Here. Delaware Division of Historical and Cultural Affairs. Accessed June 10, 2025. https://history.delaware.gov/lgbtq/alice-dunbar-nelson/.
"Edward Bringhurst III/V." LGBTQ+ History of Delaware: We Have Always Been Here. Delaware Historical and Cultural Affairs. Accessed June 10, 2025. https://history.delaware.gov/lgbtq/edward-bringhurst-iii-v/.
"Mary Askew Mather." The Delaware Women's Hall of Fame. Delaware Office of Women's Advancement & Advocacy. Accessed June 10, 2025. https://www.artworkarchive.com/profile/owaa/artwork/mary-askew-mather?collection=pride-month.
"Welcome to LGBTQ+ History of Delaware." LGBTQ+ History of Delaware: We Have Always Been Here. Delaware Historical and Cultural Affairs. Accessed June 10, 2025. https://history.delaware.gov/lgbtq-history/.
Von, Nicole and Anne M. Boylan. "Biographical Sketch of Mary H. Askew Mather." Alexander Street. Accessed June 2, 2026. https://documents.alexanderstreet.com/d/1009860187.
