Danny-Darko

Handsome holiday-maker in Weymouth, Dorset c. 1930

Victorian Gay couple, both in men’s clothes, but one in a skirt. I wonder if this was because he was a cross-dresser or because as gay men in less enlightened times they thought it was expected of them when being the passive partner.

Wally Schillicutt - 1950′s Physique Model

Four Cadets at US Military Academy, West Point c. 1880

West Point Cadets - very intimate c. 1890′s

Spread those legs, Billy Joe Carr

Busy night at the sauna / bathhouse, early 20th century

Two sailor lovers share the privacy and intimacy of the photo booth in the 1940s

c. Mid 20th Century - Young beauty

Seaman H. Baker of the United States Naval Reserve was convicted of sodomy, and sentenced to six years in prison in June 1908. Such a handsome man! So much suffering! So many had their lives ruined just because of whom they loved and slept with! 💔😭

Chauffeur and mechanic lovers of the 1920/30s

World War Two Lovers

Real rent boys in the Berlin of 1930.

French customs officers

Soldier ‘Medicals’ during WW2

1. Stephen Spender and his boyfriend Franz Büchner in 1929. London-born poet, essayist and novelist Stephen Spender (1909-1995) delayed publication of his excellent first novel, The Temple, for fifty-nine years – until 1988, when he was seventy-nine years old. The male protagonist has same-sex encounters in pre-War Germany. In Spender’s real life experience, which included living in Germany, he had a series of affairs with men, after which he married twice and took about renouncing his gay past. 2. Stephen Spender, with Winston Auden and Christopher isherwood, on holiday, Fire Island 1947.

An unusual photograph from a late 19th century American Military Academy. Some of the young men appear stiff and formal, some are relaxed and intimate with each other.

Luftwaffe lovers - Germany WW2 Recruited with no choice but to serve, they too suffered a horrible fate if discovered! Sad irony.

Soldier lovers ww2

Photographer James Van Der Zee (1886 - 1983) was an African-American photographer best known for his portraits of black New Yorkers. He was a leading figure in the Harlem Renaissance. Members of UNITY, a Athletic and Social Club, in New York

The New York Renaissance, also known as the Harlem Renaissance Big Five or the Rens, was an all-Black professional basketball team founded in 1923 by Robert “Bob” Douglas, a few years before the Harlem Globetrotters. Photography by James van der Zee

A photograph of a naked Tennessee Williams in the late 1940′s. Cruising was a pastime dear to his heart. Who can blame him, especially when you are young and successful.

Tennessee Williams, with his lover from the mid 1940s Mexican American Pancho Rodriguez. Pancho was ten years younger than TW.

Tennessee Williams, with his lover, Frank Merlo - 1950s

Gay couple in the photographic studio ca. 1900