Rikki Swin

The Rikki Swin Collection contains:

• The Rikki Swin Institute (RSI)
• Ari Kane | Fantasia Fair
• The International Foundation for Gender Education (IFGE) 
  
• Virginia Prince

Rikki Swin was born in Chicago in 1947. An expert in polymer construction and design, she started Tec Air, Inc. in 1970, a manufacturing business specializing in plastic injection moulding. This business grew to annual revenues of US$20 million; in 1999, she sold the business.

She founded the Rikki Swin Institute (RSI) in Chicago in 2001. Rikki Swin has lived in Victoria, BC, Canada, and currently resides on San Juan Island, Washington, USA.

Rikki Swin Institute

The Rikki Swin Institute: Gender Education, Research, Library and Archives (RSI) dedicated to transgender research and education. It opened to the public on March 22, 2001, to coincide with the 15th Annual Conference of the International Foundation for Gender Education. The Institute closed in December 2004.

The Institute had four objectives: the housing of a library and archives; conference co-sponsorship; digital video education; and research. Archival collections were purchased from Ari Kane, Betty Ann Lind, the International Foundation for Gender Education (IFGE), and Virginia Prince.

UVic Transgender Archives holds:

• RSI administrative records
• conference and convention materials
• correspondence
• newspaper clippings
• reports
• research materials
• the archival collections purchased from Ari Kane, Betty Ann Lind, the International Foundation for Gender Education (IFGE), and Virginia Prince

Research material includes approximately 300 completed RSI Transperson Surveys (access to confidential and personal information of identifiable individuals is subject to a research agreement to protect personal privacy).  

As the images depict below, we also hold a complete set of all the original photographs found in Harry Benjamin's seminal 1966 book, The Transsexual Phenomenon.

View material from the RSI collection