This article challenges dominant narratives of queer absence in historical archives by examining women’s same-sex relationships in Denmark at the turn of the 20th century. While feminist and queer scholars have often emphasised archival silences surrounding non-heterosexual lives, we uncover not an archive of loss, but one of abundance. Drawing on Anjali Arondekar’s concept of “archival abundance,” we analyse demographic data and archival materials – including letters, photographs and official records – to reframe the phrase “she never married” as an opening, rather than a closure. Our research reveals abundant and visible traces of queer intimacy, gender non-conformity and alternative kinship structures that have been frequently overlooked or misinterpreted. With our queering of historiographical methods, we propose a shift from reading women’s lives through a lens of absence and silence to recognising the queer possibilities embedded in their lived experiences and everyday practices. This reframing invites a more expansive understanding of queerness in historical research and archival interpretation.
Lunau et al. (Sun,) studied this question.