Leather Archives & Museum

@leatherarchives.bsky.social

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A Chicago-based research archive, library and museum dedicated to the preservation of leather, kink, fetish and BDSM community history.

[Bring me to my knees. Denver-experienced butch top is a secretly arrogant, mouthy, ill-behaved submissive needing serious discipline from mature, power-hungry dominant. Pain, bondage, whips, humiliation. Black womyn encouraged. Travel or bring you here. Come show me your stuff. She Devil. Box 415.]
Man with medium brown skin, unbuttoned flannel shirt, short dark hair and beard at table with documents. Text: [Sign on the dotted line. J. Unicorn Escobedo collects signatures supporting AB101 at Pleasuredome. More than 300 signatures were collected in one night on petitions being sent to the LIFE Lobby in Sacramento. The Harvey Milk Democratic Club has been collecting signautres on weekends at and dance clubs. Photo: Rick Gerharter.]
East Asian American man wearing flannel shirt over a hoodie and tshirt with many silver necklaces. He has brown eyes and longish black hair.
Close up of a Black woman doing a bicep curl. Text: [Sexuality is not the route to revolution. But sexuality is a prime shaper of desire, and constraint of desire leads directly to self-betrayal and social bad faith.]
Blond white man wearing red brown suede leather outfit outside leather shop.
White man with shaved face, glasses, hair on sides of his head, wearing white shirt and formal black vest.
[Buzzy Malinowski August 2, 2006 by Robert Guenther. Mr. Baltimore Eagle Buzzy Balinowski 2000 passed away Monday night, August 2. Buzzy was a longtime member of the ShipMates of Baltimore. He competed for Mr. Maryland Lather 2000 in November 1999 not long after having multiple bypass heart surgery. He became Mr. Baltimore Eagle the following spring and competed at IML 2000.]
Young black woman wearing shiny black dress holding VHS tape and smiling. Text: [Queerness, if you are in the process of becoming a leatherwoman, becomes more and more difficult to hide, until finally it bursts forth in all its wanton inappropriateness.]
Thin clean shaven white man with large ears and square jaw.
Thin white man with nipple piercings wearing a waist training corset, wrists crossed across his face.
Thin white man with thick dark beard wearing leather vest, chest harness, arm cuffs and cap.
Tan white man with leather cap, pants and plaid shirt stands and waves when being introduced among many others on stage.
White man with gray goatee wearing formal all black suit with pink bow tie and sequined bedazzled lapels
[Aug, 1989. Goodbye Fred. Thank you for all you've done. A special edition of an "oldtimer remembers". Many deaths have occurred in the community in recent years. Each has produced its own unique sense of personal loss to those friends and lover who have known them. For some Janus members, however, these deaths seem remote - something that affects other people, not them. Fred of the Catacombs was known by many, and his death saddened them. GP is including the personal comments about Fred by two members not only because Fred was a great guy, or that you may feel his loss, or even that our meeting hall used to be the Catacombs, but also because we want to convey the sense of the very personal connections and sense of community that was established years ago. Goodbye, Fred. L'chaim! My Leather daddy - Fred of the Catacombs by Carla. It was before the "plague", I think 1981 or 1982. My friend and lover, the late Mark Joplin, was enthusiastically sharing his kinky S/M bisexuality with me - blowing to pieces all the fears and stereotypes I then had and leading me to a wild and wonderful...]
Cover of the leather man handbook 2 with illustration of vitrivian man with hands cuffed wearing leather harness.
Thin whites man wearing bolo tie and suspenders with blue eyes, brown hair and mustache
Group of white men in leather at a bar. Text: The crowd is strictly leather - this is no place for pussycats or the weak of nerve. This is not to say that the place is unfriendly at all. If you want to find out what it's all about, why South of Market is what it is, this is a great place to take instructions. The staff of The Arena will be happy to pass on information as to where to go and what's on the agenda as they are very involved in the South of Market community and are always "on top" of things, so to speak.]
Calendar for upcoming programs at LA&M, available online at leatherarchives.org
White man with short brown hair, shaved face, broad torso, wearing button up shirt and leather vest at messy table in bar with trophies on wall behind.
White man with light blue eyes and reddish stubble wearing leather cuff and collar set with matching blue trim, kneeling in front of group posing for portrait.
White woman with big spiky hair embracing statue in park, wearing leather outfit with chain and handcuffs on belt, holding flogger.
White balding man with brown mustache wearing black, standing in front of American flag next to trophy.
White man with curly auburn hair, wearing a tank top with an aids ribbon, two people in leather standing behind.
Ed has a Mohawk, brown eyes, light skin. He is wearing a tshirt and leather suspenders in a leather shop with two white men
[Fawna, the recently elected coordinator of the Threshold Society in Los Angeles, CA, passed away suddenly on July 22, 2014. She was a lovely face, passionate advocate, a delightful laugh and a helping hand. She left us too soon. Fawna also used the names aka FawnaLemon, Fawnasaurus, The Fawnanator. She joined the Southern California community in 2009 and quickly became active by volunteering, including being elected to The Threshold Society, Inc. Board of Directors on more than one occasion, most recently to the position of coordinator. She was also the founder and leader of the Domme Scouts Troop 96 (a kinky scout troop with a "twist," which is in its fourth year).]
Painting of a white man wearing a leather jacket and holding up a single tail leather whip, skull in wall recess behind.
Italian man with goatee and large glasses. Text: [The Leather Journal - Leather Pride Flag Creater Tony DeBlase Dies. Joseph Bean... one of the great...of the Leather community...the Leather Pride Flag, died... Portalnd, Oregon on July 21...illness, largely involving...is survived by his lover of...Dr. Andrew Charles in... as his mother, Ida, and ... DeBlase and Mary... of South Bend, Indiana...April 3, 1942, was just 58 at death...a mammalogist, special-...of bats- was engaged...and development...professional life... included at least ten years... Museum and...development of the Connor...in Indiana before he...the founding... Leather Archives... Served as vice president of 1992 until 2000...gourmet cook, DeBlase was...cooking and dining...it was a great honor...to cook for the...in Oregon...sign was immediatly embraced appearing in parades...bumper sticker...flag's familar black, blue, and...with red accent-orginally common, but the design itself... worldwide as introduced. DeBlase the teacher and the editor and editorialist...publisher...Dr. DeBlase the brilliant...entist and testbook writer... fondly remebered...loyal friend and constant..many Leathermen...will be most profoundly missed...A private memorial was...land just after Tony's death...but plans are underway...memorial celebration of Tony during International Mr. Leather...Cards and condolences...Tony's surviving partner...Leather Archives and Muesum...will be forwarded...Charles as quickly as possible. ]
White man smiling softly, face down on white sheets.
Man with light brown skin and thick dark facial hair wearing spiked leather harness with Black man wearing uniform shirt and tie.
Black person wearing leather body suit, overlaid with non-binary pride flag.
White man with light mustache and short hair smiling in large cage outside at event
Person wearing tape mask with makeup painted on in stages. Text: We often expect or want one word to hold too many meanings and ultimately, when that word breaks open from the weight of our collective longings, we are disappointed and go off in search of another word we can destroy. Sometimes, when we find that someone else whose identity is not exactly like ours uses the same word to describe him or herself, we feel we are made invisible, our identity erased. This is where identity politics gets messy. If Thomas [Beatie] calls himself FTM and I do too but we both have radically different conceptions of what that means, who is awarded authenticity and is thus allowed to claim this word for himself? Is it a matter of history? Should we attempt to un-surface the etymology of FTM (which probably isn't too difficult) and then award the authenticity trophy to the identity that claimed it first? Or do we acknowledge that words and communities are constantly in flux, that tearing down one member of the community to build yourself up is never useful, and never gets you anywhere in the struggle?]
Three people wearing leather vests, one Black man sitting in a wheelchair outside and two butch white people embracing on ground.
[Patrick Edward McCarty, 49, succumbed to cancer on July 9, 2004 at his home in New Orleans. Pat McCarty owned and operated Gay Mart and a private dungeon above the store in New Orleans in the 1990s. Pat received a President's Award at Pantheon of Leather in 2000 for his community service. He was an associate member of the Chicago Hellfire Club and a member or associate member of numerous other clubs and organizations. A memorial service for Pat was held on Sunday, July 18 at Tau House in New Or...]
[Warren Ennis July 8, 1927-July 5, 1991. Warren died at the Veterans Adminstration Hospital in Long Beach, Calif., following a prolonged battle with AIDS. Warren was a shaker and doer in the bike clubs from the very beginning of club activities. He was president of the California Motor Club (CMC) when it was incorporated in 1966. He was also an honorary member of the Warlocks MC and the Satyrs MC.]
Blonde woman tied with rope. Text: [In order to develop a truly transformative sexual politics we must once again resist the familiarity of sexual repression and the platitudes about male and female sexuality. But we must also break with the radical feminist tradition which encourages us to subordinate sexuality to political ideology, treating out sexuality as an ugly blemish which with vigilance and time might be overcome. We must abandon the belief so deeply entrenched in the feminist community that particular sexual expressions are intrinsically liberated or intrinsically degraded.]
Two white people with dark hair. Robert is wearing a button up shirt and fleece jacket.
White man with blonde mustache wearing leather vest, boots and cap, holding a knife.
White thin blonde woman wearing a leather dress and sash standing on platform with two others.
Three white male winners of a leather contest wearing medallions, center man holding a trophy.
Smiling white man wearing a plaid shirt. He has a shaved head and brown beard.
Young muscular man with dark hair and light skin riding a motorcycle and wearing a leather shirt.
Japanese man with great hair preparing to tie woman kneeling in peach kimono.
Blonde woman wearing a jean jacket.
Two white letterman hugging. Text: [Many gay men worked tirelessly in the 1980s and 1990s to create lives beyond crisis and construct communities beyond suffering. They've done so, not because they are uncaring or seek to avoid the epidemic - many of these men are HIV positive - but because they are aware that people defined by terror and loss cannot build viable forms of community over the long haul.]
[What is a Biejay? How do you describe a nonpareil? To compare him to anyone else is an exercise in futility. Biejay is Biejay. He is probably one of the best known members of the Detroit L/L scene. His unusual name may be what makes him remembered, but I think there is more to it than that. He is totally uninhibited and extroverted, but he avoids the pitfall of being aggressive in the offensive sense of that word. Anywhere you go, at least in the Eastern half of the U.S., someone knows him. He makes a point of meeting new people and remembering the old. He will go out of his way to spend time with someone in the bar who seems to be alone. He told me once that he will talk to anyone. He said that some of his best conversations have been with the old, the fat, the ugly: the apparent misfits of our society who are outside the man stream, but who have much to offer in intellect or warmth. I have seen him miss a trick because he has taken the time to make a shy outsider feel welcome. Speaking of tricks, Biejay has to be one of the most sexually active people I know. But only the the envious can call him promiscuous. He never tricks for the sake of tricking. He is not one of those people who panics at two o'clock because he hasn't scored yet and grabs anything he can get. While he rarely goes without a partner, it is not a compulsion. At "group therapy" sessions, he is usually in the middle of the action, but never in a rapacious way to exclude others from enjoyment. Biejay is present captain of the TRIBE and was one of the founding members of that group. He has been active in the Detroit club scene since the prototype of the Detroit L/L Clubs was organized...]