Archive of Drag Performer Burma Taylor (1929-2004)

(Drag) (Transgender) Archive of Drag Performer Burma Taylor (1929-2004), a.k.a. BeBe Taylor, a.k.a. Gene “Gary” Garra. Approximately 440 photographs (some altered or collaged), hundreds of reproduced fashion and erotic illustrations, newspaper clippings, handbills, and misc. drag ephemera, pasted in two elephant folio scrapbooks [24-½ x 19-½ in. and 23 x 19 in.], together with 34 homoerotic drawings by Taylor, loose. Regarding the linguistic framework of this description, when referring to Burma/BeBe/Gary, we will generally use the pronouns “they” and “them,” but we use “he/him” and “she/her” where it preserves historical accuracy (of speech about drag, and when direct references to such pronouns can be established in the scrapbooks themselves).

A monumental visual record of a drag career spanning more than thirty years, recording Burma Taylor’s evolution from Catskill resort drag shows in the early 1950s to a Drag magazine centerfold in 1983. Taylor’s surprisingly fluid identity both foreshadows and parallels the remarkable social and cultural shifts in the performance of gender and sexuality during the same period; shifts that led to increased visibility for gay communities and nonbinary people.

Compiled without regard to chronology, the enormous scrapbook pages weave together a personal history of drag and desire, punctuated by color and b/w photographs of family, lovers and friends. Included in the folios are original artworks, both drawings and collages, which ecstatically combine the popular illustration of pin-up girls (Petty, Vargas, et al.); the faces of Hollywood film icons of the 1940s; sci-fi and horror films; and the erotic art of Tom of Finland, George Quaintance, and others.

Taylor’s story begins in the center of Vol. I, in a series of photos of his Italian immigrant parents, Frank and Rosie, who arrived in New York in 1906. A sister was born in 1910, but Taylor, born Gene Frank “Gary” Garra, was born much later, when his parents were 37 and 49. He grew up in Brooklyn and Queens, and was 18 in 1945, barely missing the draft for WWII. There are many suggestive photos that appear to be taken between 1945-1950, but the scrapbook’s next dated record is a 1952 advertisement for an upper west side hair salon where Taylor worked. Around the same time, he began to perform in drag, known for his belly-dancing and celebrity impersonations (most notably of Rita Hayworth).

The same year?, he landed a lead performance, under the alias BeBe Taylor, in “Guys will be Girls,” a drag show at the fabled Catskills pickup spot, the Pussycat Lounge, in Kiamesha Lake, NY. He also entered the downtown party scene. Prominent photos of Taylor in several slur-filled articles are featured in the scrapbooks, including “New York’s Fancy Faggot Fracas,” and “These Mad Artists’ Balls,” at least one from the magazine Tip-Off. Although these articles make use of the worst homophobic stereotypes, they are remarkably open about the real sexuality and community of drag (even as it is performed for straight audiences), rather than the wink-and-nudge coverage it often received in the mainstream press. These articles are themselves crucial, and strikingly rare, historical documents of the wide-range of discourse surrounding queer communities in the 1950s.

In the late 1950s or early 1960s, Taylor seems to have shed their “Gary” identity completely. Copious scrapbook documentation of glamorous performances and modeling jobs during the 1960s and 1970s are followed by an extensive collection of photographic prints of Rita Hayworth, Glen Ford, and other film stars. Taylor’s personal photography from this period, however, is intimate and casual, documenting an open, public life as a gay man, and increasingly, as a woman.

Around the time of Taylor’s first photoshoot for Lee Brewster’s radical transvestite magazine Drag (1972), their stylized feminine persona had evolved into a highly sexualized, but less-binary one. Taylor’s own artwork reflects this, depicting erotic fantasy scenes with men, women, and androgynous or hermaphroditic characters, including mermaids and monsters, in endless combinations.

In her 1983 Drag centerfold, Taylor is described as a resident of California. There are many photos that seem to be taken in California, where Taylor was probably identifying publicly as a woman, although she was clearly comfortable in front of the camera without her clothes on, and with a nonbinary set of physical sex markers.

There are a number of images that could be as late as the 90s. A substantial amount of research remains to be done on Taylor, their circle and connections to Brewster, the Queens Liberation Front, and their later life. Genealogical records suggest Gene Garra died in NYC in 2004, and was buried in Potter’s Field. The Drag centerfold can be viewed here.

SOLD

Two vols. Elephant folio. Vol. 1: Black binder, 24-½ x 19-½ inches, with 17 leaves; each leaf mounted recto and verso [34] pp. with b/w and color photos, handbills, newspaper clippings, original artwork, most in colored pencil, and a large number of cut-out reproductions of early Hollywood and gay illustrators; each page covered in rigid plastic film; inside rear board also collaged. Including nine pages of personal and professional photography of Taylor, their friends, and family (for a total of more than 250 photographs, a few pages mostly 3-¼ x 2-¼ in., but many larger, including several 8 x 10 in. portraits, and pages of collaged performance photos taken from larger prints), two pages of Taylor’s drawings, and one full-page caricature of Taylor by Zel, the celebrity caricaturist of the Brown Derby, Los Angeles. Most elements Very Good, a few cut-outs discolored by scrapbook paste. Cloth boards, metal ring binder, rubbed. Vol. II: Black stab-bound portfolio, 23 x 19 in., with 11 leaves mounted recto and verso; [22] pp. with b/w photos, newspaper clippings, and collaged Hollywood film stills and other photos of classic film stars (for a total of approx. 190 photographic prints: 60 personal and 130 promo, many altered/collaged); inside rear board also collaged. First two leaves [4] pp. and rear board with photos of Taylor and clippings of parties and performances they attended (for a total of approx. 60 personal photos).

Together with 34 loose drawings, various sizes, most approaching or larger than 8-½ x 10-½ in., a few smaller. A few signed and dated. Some toning to edges, leaves with remnants of previous mounting verso, not visible recto. Very good. Currently housed in protective plastic sleeves.

(Graphic Design) Four Typographic X-Rated Film Posters

Cinéma Béverley. Four Typographic X-Rated Film Posters. Paris: Imp. Lacroix, n.d. [1985-1987]. 24 x 16 in.; single-color offset on white stock. Cinema stamp verso. Some small dents and light handling marks, very good.

From the “last porn theatre in Paris,” Le Cinéma Béverley, which opened in 1983. These distinctive posters were produced in accordance with the 1975 French law that prevented X-rated films from using imagery in their street-side advertisements. Surviving the advent of video and internet porn, before finally closing in 2019, Le Béverley was an innovative cinema, introducing couples’ screenings to the Paris adult scene.

Film titles: Jeune Filles en Chaleur à Sodomiser (1985); Jouissances Anales pour Adolescents en Chaleur (1986); Le Nain Assoiffé de Perversité (1987); Voluptes Anales (1987).

SOLD

Archive of Leather Fraternity Membership Files

Archive of Leather Fraternity Membership Files, Los Angeles, California, 1973-1978.

Approximately 1.0 linear foot composed of: 200 membership files (approx. 190 with 4 page membership application, the majority manuscript, others typed); most with a photograph of the member and at least once piece of additional correspondence, for an approx. total of 1000+ pages and 175 photos, ranging in size from 1-½ x 1 in. to 8 x 10 in., most closer to 3-¼ x 2-¼ in.; 9 applications and membership correspondence loose, now housed in mylar; two administrative files, and one sheet of Leather Fraternity stickers. Occasional wear from handling, a few photos darkened or toned, overall very good.

An exceptional research archive of 200 Leather Fraternity member files, almost all containing a 4 pp. confidential membership application with exhaustive details pertaining to the applicant’s sexual history, fetishes, and fantasies. Fraternity demographics represented a diverse age range, experience level, and sexual identification. Most applications accompanied by at least one required photograph, many with two or three, forming a parallel collection of vernacular self-portrait photography, some of it erotic. Together the files represent an astonishing and intimate catalogue of male homosexuality and kink, all self-described in answer to prompts including “My first sexual experience,” “My first S/M experience,” and “What do you think are your best qualifications for your roles as slave/master?”

The Leather Fraternity began in 1973 as a fee-based confidential “introduction referral service” for gay leathermen in Los Angeles. Creator John Embry (1926-2010) was a serial entrepreneur who used the Fraternity newsletter as a crossmarketing device with his S/M mail-order business, Robert Payne’s Leather Emporium. Two years later, he founded the quintessential leather/BDSM magazine, Drummer, with Jeanne Barney as editor-in-chief. In Drummer’s first issue (June 1975), the Leather Fraternity was described as an “international, membership only, fast growing group of hundreds of gay Leathermen,” who would be “hand-matched based on the criteria in the confidential application.” Fraternity classifieds were an important part of the magazine, and until 1977, one had to be a member to respond.

The importance of the Fraternity and Drummer cannot be overstated; together they provided visibility for “the emerging identity of the ‘new’ homosexual,” a “homomasculine” or “hypomasculine” male, radically different from prevailing effeminate gay stereotypes. The magazine and the businesses associated with it created a network “of men who did not always have a sense of belonging elsewhere in the gay men’s community. It served as a communal forum for often isolated individuals and allowed for existing leather and kink institutions to be more easily identified and accessed. But perhaps most importantly, it generated a common culture and shared language that helped integrate local networks into a more national and international conversation. It gave these men images, stories, information, commentary, products and ideas to jerk off to, to relate to, to identify with, and that served to empower and grow a fledgling network of leathermen.” (1)

For two years before Drummer, Embry’s Fraternity newsletter had been connecting men with corresponding kinks. The application was designed to elicit the utmost specificity regarding appearance, preferred roles, dress, toys, substances, and activities. Invited to use additional sheets of paper if necessary, many files include longer, manuscript accounts of their deepest, idiosyncratic fantasies. The potential members placed an extraordinary amount of trust in the Leather Fraternity and Drummer staff. They provided their real names and addresses during a period when most of the described activities were considered deviant, if not outright illegal. Indeed, from 1975-1976 the core staff of Drummer were under 24hr police surveillance.

Police harassment of Embry, Barney, and others culminated the night of April 10, 1976, when the LAPD raided a Drummer charitable mock “slave auction” at the Mark IV Baths. The police “emancipated” the “slaves” and arrested 40 people for violating an 1899 statute forbidding involuntary servitude. Charges were dropped against most defendants, but four eventually plead guilty to felony pandering, including Embry, Barney, and the porn star Val Martin, who had been acting as the auctioneer.

Two substantial administrative files in the archive document the lead up to the auction and its aftermath. Correspondence between Barney and various members shed light on the ongoing conflict both with the LAPD and internally at Drummer and the Fraternity. Eventually, Embry and Barney split ways: he took Drummer to San Francisco in 1977, initiating a legal battle over the Fraternity membership files and dues. Although Barney’s bid to revive the Leather Fraternity newsletter independent of the magazine was ultimately unsuccessful, these files suggest that she continued to accept new members through 1978 and ended up with most, if not all, of the original application materials.

Files organized by last name and box number, this group including names beginning G-Z. It is difficult to speculate on exactly how many files might have existed, but given Embry’s 1975 claim to “hundreds” of members, we believe this may well represent at least two-thirds of the original membership files. Many with additional correspondence, some with considerably more. Most in regard to satisfaction or lack thereof with the membership; dues; missing issues of Drummer (a free subscription was included with membership); and edits to the encapsulated classified ads. Scattered references to responses written to other members that can be cross-referenced within the archive, a few unopened letters.

More images available on request.

ON HOLD

(1) Race Bannon, “John Embry’s Inductee Speech: Leather Hall of Fame,” 2014. See also Jack Fritscher, Gay San Francisco: The Rise and Fall of Drummer Magazine, 2013.

34 Photographs of San Francisco Gay Motorcycle Club Events

(Sexuality) (Motorcycle Clubs) (California) 34 Photographs of San Francisco Gay Motorcycle Club Events, ca. 1973-1976. Silver prints, each 5 x 7 in., a few slightly curled, one with a small area of discoloration. Very Good+.

Scarce documentation from San Francisco’s male-only gay motorcycle clubs which emerged in the late 1940s and early 1950s in tandem with leathermen culture. The clubs were greatly influenced by gay veterans’ experience in WWII and Hollywood touchstones like The Wild Ones (1954). The organizations celebrated hypermasculinity (as opposed to prevailing effeminate gay stereotypes), leather fetishism, and BDSM.

They were, above all, social clubs. The MCs provided their members with a safe space for unapologetic sexual expression in a period during which their sexuality was still largely criminalized. They maintained anonymity in their records, and were known for their wild “runs”: multi-day bike trips to nearby wilderness areas and campgrounds—where they partied hard and avoided police surveillance. The groups reached their apex in the 1970s, when there were reportedly over 20 gay MCs in California, including the Satyrs MC (LA), Oedipus MC (LA), Blue Max MC (LA), Rainbow MC (SF), Warlocks MC, Renco (SF), San Francisco Serpents MC, The San Franciscans MC, and the Petaluma Cocks MC (SF). In addition to sponsoring and organizing runs (oftentimes for charity), clubs were identified with their specific bars in San Francisco’s leather district.

Patches, colors, and other graphics in this present group of photos identify members from many San Francisco MCs, suggesting they were taken before or after a multi-club run. A number show the presentation of trophies and prizes, presumably from bike events and competitions during the run, and many include members of the South Pacific MC, a visiting club from Australia. Several famous San Francisco leather clubs on Folsom Street’s “Miracle Mile” may be identified in the photographs, including Boot Camp.

The crowded, carousing scenes represent the uninhibited atmosphere of the halcyon days of San Francisco’s leather scene before HIV/AIDS. Rare, only ONE Archives at USC seems to have similar documentation.

SOLD

Press Photo of Billy Graham in Times Square Sex Shop

Graham, Billy. Press Photo. N.d. [1957 or 1960]. Sheet: 9 x 7 in. Stamped verso: Cleveland Press Reference Dept; also inscribed in pencil verso: Billy Graham in a W42d St dirty bookstore. Some small discoloration top center. Good.

Vintage print of an image of the famous preacher during one of his New York City campaigns, probably his first, in 1957. During his 16-week crusade at Madison Square Garden, Graham did a publicity tour in Times Square that included a stop at one of the area’s infamous sex shops. Here he gazes intently at a bookrack of seemingly gay magazines, next to the “all new male films” section.

$45

Sous la jupe: illustré

Maindouce, G. Sous la jupe: illustré. Paris: Les Éditions du Couvre-Feu, n.d. [ca. 1933-1935]. 8vo, 115 pp.; erotic fiction illustrated with 28 b/w pls., most printed recto, some also verso; in orig. wrapper with color d.j., d.j. beginning to split at spine, edges worn, else very good. D.j. with misprint “Nombreuses illustrations sujestives” [sic] described by Pia.

Éditions Couvre-Feu was one of a number of imprints founded by Léon [a.k.a. Victor?] Vidal under the larger umbrella of his erotic publishing and fashion group, Société des Éditions Gauloises. Couvre-Feu specialized in pseudonymous fetish, sadomasochist, and bondage literature; illustrated with fetish photography by Studio Biederer and from the archives of Vidal’s other business, the lingerie company Diana-Slip, whose catalogue included anonymous fetish images by Brassaï, Kertesz, and Roger Schall.

Several editions bearing the title “Sous la jupe” were issued by Couvre-Feu between 1933-1935. They differ considerably from this rather avant-garde example and priority has not been convincingly established: one was unillustrated, another included extracts of several erotic stories with only scattered illustrations, a third was a promotional list of erotic publications, and an English variation was issued by Éditions Richepanse in 1935. Nevertheless, it is possible to match some of the “detourned” images in this artistic edition to others by the Studio Biederer and from the Diana-Slip catalogues.

Though recorded in Pia, P., Livres de l’Enfer, this version and d.j. seemingly uncommon, OCLC locates no holdings of this edition in North America.

$450

Ultra: Wrestling Gals, Bizarre Fads, Exotic Fashions. Vol. 1, No. 3.

[Zucker, Hal]. Zucca, H. Ultra: Wrestling Gals, Bizarre Fads, Exotic Fashions. Vol. 1, No. 3. New York, NY: Ultra Sports Co., 1958. 8-¼ x 5-½ in., 61, [3] pp.; b/w illus. from artwork by Gene Bilbrew and Eric Stanton among many others, uncredited; in orig. color stapled wrappers, with remnants of red privacy tape at edges and a handwritten price in upper corner, small loss to bottom of rear wrap.

One of four total numbers of this domination and sports fetish digest. Single OCLC holding at Yale, of the first issue.

$95

On the Question of Homosexuals and the Party

(New Communist Movement – Homosexuality) On the Question of Homosexuals and the Party. N.p., n.d., [1973?]. (2) 8-1/2 x 14 in. sheets, [4] pp.; staple neatly removed, second sheet with minor stains verso.

Doctrinaire “Marxist Leninist defense of the line of the Continuations Committee on homosexuality,” arguing there is a “material basis for the exclusion of homosexuals from the party building movement.” The paper condemns the mores and metaphysics of the “depraved liberal bourgeoisie” and provides a materialistic, dialectical argument against homosexuality. Homosexuality is not a private question, it is a “social relation” that “replaces love and comradeship between the sexes with antagonism and hatred […] There is no way that such degenerates and exploiters can be admitted to […] the revolutionary party.”

The National Continuations Committee was part of the New Communist Movement: it emerged from a 1973 national party-building conference intended to create consensus between a number of Marxist-Leninist organizations. Its stated purpose was “a defense of the science of Marxism-Leninism and […] an all out assault on the CPUSA and all forms of revisionism.” Regional groups were formed to provide issue papers to the Continuations Committee, and this appears to be one of them. Its vehement argument against sexual freedom and the factionalism that undermines class unity is an overwhelming repudiation of progressive politics and the American left.

Primary source document of the mixed history of communism and LGBTQ rights. No copies found in OCLC.

Ref. National Continuations Committee Newsletter No. 1 (January 1974).

$225

(Sexual Health) (Religious Orders) Sammelband of Five French Medical Theses

(Sexual Health) (Religious Orders) Sammelband of Five French Medical Theses, 1792-1793. Unbound pamphlets, stitched, 21 x 14 cm, untrimmed. Engraved headpieces, wide margins, some general darkening and light staining or foxing; dampstain affecting gutter of final two pamphlets, else good, sound copies.

A group of First Republic-era medical pamphlets published at the Faculté de médecine de Montpellier, under the direction of some of the era’s most famous vitalist physicians and chemists, i.e. Paul-Joseph Bartez and Henri Fouquet.

The final pamphlet, by Lion, is a rare thesis on sexual diseases caused by excessive or insufficient sexual activity. The epigraph by Voltaire sets the tone with the warning “L’abstinence ou l’excès ne fit jamais d’heureux.” [“Abstinence or excess never made anyone happy.”] Lion speculates on the effects of abstinence in the health of priests and nuns, at risk for “erotic deliriums,” visions, and hysteria. He discusses masturbation and admonishes against marriage between a young woman and an older man. Particularly interesting in the context of the French Revolutionary “reorganization” of the Church.

Only no. 4 is noted in OCLC, with one holding, in Wales. The rest, including Lion, are not recorded institutionally.

$500

1. Durand, Joanne-Antonio-Guillelmo. De atmosphaera quatenus physicum, chemicum et medicum spectat, selecta quaedam [...]. Monsepelii: J.G. Tournel, et primo Reipublicae [1792]. 51 pp.
2. Duhult, Francisco. Dissertatio anatomico-physiologica de systemate lymphatico seu absorbenti [...]. Monsepelii: J.G. Tournel, 1793. 41 pp.
3. Magistel, Gabriel. Collecta quaedam circa naturae morborum cognoscendae necessitatem [...]. Monsepelii: J.G. Tournel, 1793. 29 pp.; closed tear beginning at fore edge, p. 3.
4. Vidal, Joannes-Baptista. Quaedam circa naturae vires, et circa perturbationem virium vitalium [...]. Monsepelii: J.G. Tournel, 1793. 29 pp. Some footnotes in French. Partially a vitalist assessment of epilepsy, just over ten years after its first classification in French.
5. Lion, Laurentius-Basilius. Pensum academicum circa tum continentiae, tum lubricitatis morbos [...]. Monsepelii: Tournel Patris & Filli, 1792. 16 pp. Some footnotes in French.

An essay on the Arbutus Uva Ursi and Pyrola Umbellata …

(Medicine – Botanic) (Sexuality) Mitchell, John. An essay on the Arbutus Uva Ursi and Pyrola Umbellata … An inaugural dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Medicine … [University of Pennsylvania]. Philadelphia: Printed for the author by Eaken & Mecum, 1803. 8vo, unbound pamphlet, stitched, [i, 35] pp.; text preceded by engraving drawn by Univ. of Penn. Professor William Bartram, leaves foxed, rough edges worn with chips and staining, two leaves unopened, fair; faint early ownership inscription on title page, “Mrs.(?) Woods.”

Uva Ursi (Bear-berry) was known from indigenous medicine, it is still used in limited applications such as cystitis. The text details preparation, chemical analysis, and experiments on patients from the Philadelphia Alms House who were suffering from gonorrhea. It was found to be efficacious.

SOLD

Les Maladies Sans Nom. Leur Guréison Faciles et Radicale Conseils aux Medales Désespérés.

(Sexual Health) Richard, Charles-Antoin. Les Maladies Sans Nom. Leur Guréison Faciles et Radicale Conseils aux Medales Désespérés. Paris: E. Dentu, [1877]. 6-1/2 x 4-1/2 in., 32 pp.; pink stapled wrappers, light wear.

Richard gives case histories of many diseases, some sexual, healed with either “gouttes régératices” made by Dr. Samuel Thompson or “Granules d’Arséniate” by Dr. Addison. Further research warranted into connection to other arsenic-based treatments for venereal disease.

Parisian holdings cite 46 pages [sic?], North American holdings only at Rochester.

$125

​(Contraception) The Dawn of Today: Let Va-Jel open the way [...]

​(Contraception) Alpha Laboratory. The Dawn of Today: Let Va-Jel [scientific birth control] open the way to a better happier life for all women. Chicago: N.p., n.d. [ca. 1925]. Single sheet, folded: 6-1/2 x 4-1/4 in., printed recto and verso in pink, [6] pp.; near fine.

Elegantly designed Deco leaflet for Va-Jel germicidal jelly, “a new freedom for women,” and “the key to a happier life,” is “voluntary motherhood.” Aimed at well-bred, but working women? See recto, additional advert for “Va’Antiseptic” douche for the woman “who desires her person to be [...] free from [...] the acrid accumulations of an active day, perhaps continuously upon her feet ....”

Not found in OCLC or Atwater.

SOLD

(Sex Education) (Antisemitism) Collection of Anti-Sex Education and Moral Decency Literature

(Sex Education) (Christian) (Antisemitism) Collection of Anti-Sex Education and Moral Decency Literature, 1956-1970.

Comprising 11 booklets and pamphlets from both Christian and conservative morality campaigns, including Christian Crusade, The John Birch Society, The Movement to Restore Decency (MOTOREDE), and the National Organization for Decent Literature. Most examples are argued from Christian perspectives, some with explicit racist, sexist, anticommunist, and antisemitic content corresponding to far-right panic over the cultural impact of school integration and sexuality education. Frequent references to counterculture and the “sexual indoctrination” espoused by the Sex Information and Education Council of the United States (SIECUS; founded by Dr. Mary Calderone, medical director for Planned Parenthood Federation of America). Some illustrated. Scattered holdings in OCLC, some unrecorded. Overall condition very good.

$400

In chronological order: Publications Disapproved for Youth by the National Organization for Decent Literature: June 1956. Chicago, IL: NODL, 1956. [12] pp. pamphlet with book list by genre; 20th Century Reformation Hour. The Shame of the National Council of Churches … Collingswood, NJ: [1961]. 7 pp. illus. pamphlet; The problem of teen-age purity: The teachings of Pope Pius XII. New Rochelle, NY: Salesiana Publishers and Distributors, [1961]; Cross, John. A Fearful Crime to Offend God in Order to Please Men. Kenosha: WI: Cross Publications, 1961. 32 pp. stapled booklet; How the ‘Levelers’ Are Destroying America. N.p., n.d. [ca. 1968]. [4] pp. pamphlet; Sex Education in the Schools: Some Thoughts from Eminent Doctors and From MOTOREDE. Belmont, MA: MOTOREDE, n.d. [ca. 1969]. [4] pp. pamphlet; Manion Forum: Weekly Broadcast No. 791. South Bend, IN: 1969. [4] pp. newsletter; Hargis, Billy James. Sex Replaces Prayer in Public Schools. [Christian Crusade], 1969. [4] pp. newsletter; The Fact Finder. Must Our Schools Teach our Children Sex without Morality? Phoenix, AZ: 1969. [8] pp. pamphlet, illus.; American Education Lobby. Sex Education: Assault on American Youth. Washington, D.C.: American Education Lobby, n.d. [ca. 1969]. [4] pp. folio newsletter; Drake, Dr. Gordon V. SIECUS: Corrupter of Youth. Tulsa, OK: Christian Crusade, 1969. 63 pp. stapled booklet with bibliography; Hargis, Billy James. Sex Revolution in the United States. Tulsa, OK: Christian Crusade, 1970. First Edition. 53 pp. booklet, some b/w illus.

(Sexual Health) Annual Report of the Oregon Social Hygiene Society. Vols. 2-5, 9 [subtitles vary]

(Sexual Health) Oregon Social Hygiene Society. Annual Report of the Oregon Social Hygiene Society. Vols. 2-5, 9 [subtitles vary]. Portland, OR: The Society, 1913-1920. 5 vols., 8vo, 48; 48; 60; 48;12 pp.; illus. annual reports on the activities of the society. Nos. 1, 6-8 not published. Brown paper wrappers, sl. darkened, ex-library with stamps on front wraps and pencil shelving labels. No. 9 with intact fold out “blue print,” and heavy center crease.

This nearly complete run, lacking no. 10, documents a lively public health campaign that spanned WWI. Illustrated throughout with graphs, charts and b/w reproductions of exhibition materials and photographs of lectures given in industrial and institutional settings. The Oregon Social Hygiene Society’s approach was comprehensive rather than strictly moralistic. The state-sponsored organization relied on exhibits, public lectures, elementary education, “checking the spread of falsehoods” largely through criminalizing quack advertising, and eventually, employing women to lead “mother’s meetings” and make house-to-house calls. Their efforts were seemingly quite successful, the 1919-20 report ranks Oregon with the lowest incidence of venereal disease within incoming US Army recruits in the nation.

Scattered holdings are recorded in OCLC, complete runs scarce.

SOLD

(Sexual Health) Aux Victimes de L’Amour

(Sexual Health) Bertray, A. Aux Victimes de L’Amour by Doctor Bertray Professor ... of the Faculty of Medicine of Paris . Paris: [Dupont], nd [ca. 1900]. 4-3/4 x 3-1/8 in., 8 pp.; stapled self-wraps, 1 mm closed tear front wrap fore-edge, else very good. Dr. Bertray will “relieve and heal what he bonhomie called the little miseries of Parisians.” A related edition held at BNF only, otherwise unrecorded.

$ 45

(Sexual Health) Dr. McIntosh’s Natural Uterine Supporter

(Sexual Health) Dr. McIntosh’s Natural Uterine Supporter Company. Dr. McIntosh’s Natural Uterine Supporter [title from front wrapper]. [Chicago]: Dr. McIntosh’s Natural Uterine Supporter Company, n.d., ca. 1876-1882. 8vo, [4] pp.; illus., edges soiled with chips and small closed tears, vertical and lateral creases where formerly folded, fair to good.

Promotional leaflet for a vaginal pessary designed to relieve uterine prolapse. Despite the seeming patent medicine hyperbole, the device is quite similar to modern pessaries.

OCLC finds one example? possibly located at Univ. of Rochester.

$90

(Sexual Health) (Education) 11 educational pamphlets and nearly complete Journal of Social Diseases

(Sexual Health) (Education) A collection of 11 educational pamphlets published by the Society of Sanitary and Moral Prophylaxis and The American Federation for Sex Hygiene, 1911-1914. Together with a nearly complete run of Journal of Social Diseases, 1911-1915.

A comprehensive and rare collection of early sex instruction and social hygiene materials from the the first social hygiene association in the United States. In 1905, New York dermatologist Prince Morrow founded The Society of Sanitary and Moral Prophylaxis, it later changed its name to The American Federation for Sex Hygiene, and eventually joined with sister organizations in other states to form the American Social Hygiene Association. Seizing on the momentum of the growing public health movement, Morrow is recognized as an early and key proponent of sex instruction (sex hygiene) in schools. Believing that most parents were not qualified to provide medical and scientific instruction, Morrow’s organization sought to introduce modern, secular sex hygiene into public education through professional text-books, literature, and lectures.

Although some of the society’s arguments were based on contemporary scientific sexism and racism, Morrow believed medical misinformation and the sexual double-standard against women were dangerous impediments to understanding and prevention. This led the Society to hold men equally accountable for social diseases. Healthy sexual function required eliminating the demand for prostitution and pornography, not just the prostitute or pornographer.

By WWI, Morrow’s medical sex instruction movement had been joined to, and subsumed by, the moral purity movement, creating a new national sexual health agenda that partnered private associations and community groups with the US military and punitive federal policy. The partnership between ASHA (which was led by Charles Eliot, president-emeritus of Harvard, and counted Jane Addams and Julius Rosenwald among its board) and the US government led to policies that continued to stigmatize women (and incarcerate them). In one infamous example, El Paso made it a felony to infect someone with a venereal disease in 1918.

Physical copies of these early sexual health materials are rare in Worldcat and the market.

Comprising: Morrow, Dr. Prince A. Report on Progress; The Sex Problem: Social Diseases, Publicity, Sex Instruction, The Double Standard of Morality; and The Teaching of Sex Hygiene. New York, NY: Society of Sanitary and Moral Prophylaxis; The American Federation for Sex Hygiene, 1912. Three pamphlets, each stapled self wraps, The Sex Problem ex-library with stamps and pencil shelf-mark to front. Society of Sanitary and Moral Prophylaxis Educational Pamphlet Nos. 1-2, 4-7 (The Young Man’s Problem; Instruction in the Physiology and Hygiene of Sex for Teachers; The Boy Problem for Parents and Teachers; How My Uncle, The Doctor, Instructed Me in Matters of Sex; Health and the Hygiene of Sex for College Students; The Mother’s Reply. New York, NY: Society of Sanitary and Moral Prophylaxis, 1911-1914. 16-32 pp. each. These editions distributed by the Purity Educational League of North America (San Francisco). Ex-library with stamps and shelf-marks. Very Good. Bigelow, Maurice A. Sex-Instruction as a Phase of Social Education. New York: NY, American Federation for Sex Hygiene, 1913. Ex-library with stamps and shelf-marks. Good. Eliot, Charles W. Public Opinion and Sex Hygiene. New York: NY, American Federation for Sex Hygiene, 1913. Ex-library with stamps and shelf-marks. Good. Together with: The Society of Sanitary and Moral Prophylaxis. Journal of Social Diseases. Vols. II-IV. New York, NY: Society of Sanitary and Moral Prophylaxis, 1911-1913. Continued by: Journal of The Society of Sanitary and Moral Prophylaxis. Vols. V-VI. New York, NY: Society of Sanitary and Moral Prophylaxis, 1914-1915. 20 issues in two vols., cloth, original wrappers bound in. Ex-library stamps, spines with printed shelf-labels, else very good. Five of six volumes, a nearly complete run of the first American sexual hygiene journal.

SOLD

(Sexual Health) (Education) Circular Nos. 2-4

(Sexual Health) (Education) (Illinois) Chicago Society of Social Hygiene. Circular No. 2. Self-Protection: Sexual Hygiene For Young Men; Circular No. 3. Family Protection: For the Protection of Wives and Children from Venereal Contamination; Circular No. 4. Community Protection: Education against Venereal Disease a Need of the State. Chicago, IL: Chicago Society of Social Hygiene, n.d. [ca. 1911-1920]. 8vo, each pamphlet [4] pp.; no. 2 somewhat toned, else good.

Public health pamphlets issued by the Chicago member organization of the American Social Hygiene Association. Scarce in the market and institutionally, OCLC seemingly records less than 5 physical copies of each circular, possibly fewer?

$100

(Sexual Health) (Education) (California) A Plain Explanation of the Greatest Social Evil

(Sexual Health) (Education) (California) Howard, Wm. Lee. A Plain Explanation of the Greatest Social Evil. San Francisco, CA: Purity Educational League of North America, 1910; and California Social Hygiene Society. 16 pp.; stapled printed wraps, ex-library with stamps and shelf-marks. Circular No. 8: The Need for Education in Sex Hygiene. San Francisco, CA: n.d. [ca. 1913]. 9 pp.; stapled self-wrapper, very good.

Early sex hygiene pamphlets. Although its name suggests otherwise, the Purity Educational League of North America was committed to a “wholesome discussion of sex life” featuring “pure and healthful knowledge,” in contrast to the “silence and secrecy” of past policy. “By secrecy we encourage mental perversion.” Sex education is patriotic.

$30

(Sexual Health) (Education) Seven Booklets and Pamphlets

(Sexual Health) (Education) (New York) New York Social Hygiene Society; American Social Hygiene Association. Seven Booklets and Pamphlets, 1914-1924. 8vo, each 4-171 pp., most approx. 12 pp.; two with b/w illus. throughout, in various printed wrappers, most ex-library with accession stamps and pencil shelf labels. Overall Good.

Based in New York, the founders of the American Social Hygiene Association (ASHA) included reformers and philanthropists such as Jane Addams and John D. Rockefeller, Jr. At least through the early 1920s ASHA shared an address with the New York Social Hygiene Society, formerly the Society of Sanitary and Moral Prophylaxis, the earliest of the American “voluntary social hygiene associations,” and a member of ASHA. The New York Society and ASHA cooperated with medical organizations, law enforcement, and social welfare groups to develop public information campaigns: mainly in the form of lectures, pamphlets, and journals.

This group includes two well-illustrated examples: Frank J. Osborne. A Health Exhibit for Men. New York, NY: New York Social Hygiene Society, 1917, with a few closed tears; and The New York Social Hygiene Society, Inc., 1916-1917 [title from cover]. New York, NY. Both booklets document public exhibits and lectures given in the state of New York.

Also: American Social Hygiene Association. First Annual Report, 1913-1914. New York, NY: The American Society Hygiene Association, 1914. Frank J. Osborne. The Control of Venereal Disease from the Public Health Standpoint. New York, NY: The New York Social Hygiene Society, 1917. Will Irwin. Conquering an Old Enemy. New York, NY: The American Society Hygiene Association, 1920. Publications of the American Social Hygiene Association, 1918. Bigelow, Maurice. The Established Points in Social Hygiene Education. New York, NY: American Social Hygiene Association, 1924.

$200

(Sexual Health) (Education) (Illinois) Manpower

(Sexual Health) (Education) (Illinois) Public Health Service, United States. Manpower. Venereal Disease Pamphlet No. 6. [Springfield IL?]: Social Hygiene Press; State Department of Public Health, Illinois, n.d. [ca. 1919]. 16 pp. pamphlet, stapled pictorial color wrapper, 1mm closed tear, recto, else very good.

“Sex—uncontrolled is disaster and wreck. Sex in control for men means Power.” Original emphasis.

A few pamphlets from this series held at Harvard and Oberlin, this one seemingly unrecorded in OCLC.

$45

(Sexual Health) (Libraries) Two letters soliciting librarians’ help fighting venereal disease

(Sexual Health) (Librarians) Two letters expressing support for librarians’ help fighting venereal disease. Comprising: Office of the Surgeon General, US Public Health Service, 1918. Letter from Surgeon General Rupert Blue to Librarians of the United States, October 3, 1918. Single sheet, typed, with Blue’s duplicated signature, lower right hand corner folded, two creases from original mailing. Together with: American Library Association. Letter from Secretary George Utley to Librarians, October 3, 1918. Single sheet, typed, with Utley’s duplicated signature, creased, upper corner folded.

The first letter requests support of librarians in the civic fight against venereal disease. The Surgeon General’s office will be preparing “an accredited list of books of instruction [for young men and women]” to be distributed in libraries “in such a way that their interest will be aroused.” The second, from the American Library Association, expresses approval of the Surgeon General’s plan to ask librarians to aid their enterprise in the “judicious distribution of good books.”

Together with a TLS from the American Social Hygiene Association to a library in Maine requesting information on what social hygiene reading is available at their location.

$60

(Sexual Health) (Medical Advertising) Be Healthy

(Sexual Health) (Medical Advertising) (Graphic Design) Public Health Institute. Be Healthy. Chicago, 1937. Color enamel silkscreen? on tin?, 8-½ x 11 in., date printed at foot. Surface with minor pitting and discoloration, colors worn at edges, possibly from original mounting, small ripples at top and bottom edges, mounting holes at each corner.

Scarce ephemera of a non-profit medical organization that became the largest venereal disease clinic in the world and a test case for the ethics of medical advertising and the right to affordable health-care.

The Public Health Institute (PHI) was established in downtown Chicago in 1919 to cheaply diagnose and treat the epidemic of venereal disease. Its founders hoped to repeat the military’s successful model of curtailing disease during WWI through widespread publicity and testing. The board of trustees was composed of elite Chicagoan businessmen and philanthropists who added a management style rooted in business efficiencies and early industrial medicine. These efficiencies helped it to become solvent during its first year and by 1929 PHI was serving 1500-2000 patients a day at its three branches, including a south side location opened under pressure from black civic leaders.

Patients remained anonymous and no one was denied service because of inability to pay. Its profits were reinvested in other venereal disease programs, including direct support for the Illinois Social Hygiene League (ISHL) and a $100,000 renovation of Provident Hospital, the first African-American owned and operated hospital in the US.

The PHI’s relationship with ISHL and its director, Dr. Louis Schmidt, brought it notoriety when Schmidt was expelled from the Chicago Medical Society (CMS) for violating its ban on advertising. According to its own reports, the PHI not only advertised in daily newspapers but placed 25,000 posters in public toilets, factories, and streetcars. The CMS’s unanimous action against Schmidt and the Institute—based on how PHI’s advertising challenged the social and economic power of their monopoly—was publicly ridiculed, since it punished a charity that had healed thousands. The case brought attention to the increasing cost of medicine and inadequate health care for the lower classes, initiating a conversation about a universal right to health care that continues to this day.

The clever PHI advertising slogans were well-known from Chicago’s newspapers: “Wild Oats are Watered by Tears,” “Self-Treatment Won’t Cure ‘Social’ Diseases,” etc. The present example, “Be Healthy,” was printed in April 1937.

SOLD

(Sexual Health) (Pennsylvania) Four Reports on Vice and Social Diseases

(Sexual Health) (Pennsylvania) (Antiprostitution) Four reports on vice and social diseases, 1911-1913.

Together revealing the competing contemporary methodologies for controlling disease and vice: 1) scientific/medical and 2) moral/legal. Philadelphia’s report includes police reports and detailed arrest notes, as well as an appendix on sex hygiene. The Pittsburgh commission’s “constructive program” recommends sterilization and censorship and includes an extremely harsh analysis of women in prostitution, “lured by the love of luxury and idleness [rather] than driven by the pangs of penury.” Includes a wage survey of prostitutes in the city.

*The Vice Commission of Philadelphia: a report on existing conditions with recommendations to the Honorable Rudolph Blankenburg, Mayor of Philadelphia. Philadelphia, PA: The Vice Commission of Philadelphia, 1913. 8vo, 163 pp.; in brown printed wrapper, lower forecorner damaged throughout textblock, not affecting text. Fair.

*Morals Efficiency Commission. Report and recommendations of Morals efficiency commission. Pittsburgh, PA: N.p., 1913. 8vo, 43 pp.; stapled gray printed wrapper, sunned, damaged forecorner affects all pages, not affecting legibility. Fair.

*Wilson, Robert. The Eradication of the Social Diseases in Large Cities. Offprint from Transactions of the Fifteenth International Congress on Hygiene and Demography, 1912. Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1912. 8vo, 12 pp.; stapled printed wrapper, center fold and darkened.

*Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Social Disease. Report and Prospectus, 1911. [Philadelphia, PA]: N.p., 1911. Small 8vo, [16] pp.; printed self-wrapper, subscription card laid in, small closed tears at fore edge. Good.

$75

(Sexual Health) (Prostitution) (California) Transactions of the Commonwealth Club of California ...

(Sexual Health) (Prostitution) (California) Commonwealth Club of California. Transactions of the Commonwealth Club of California. Vol. VI, No. 1: The Red Plague (May 1911) and Vol. VIII, No. 7 (August 1913): The Red Plague—Second Report. San Francisco, CA: Commonwealth Club, 1911; 1913. 2 vols., 8vo, 83; [99] pp.; in printed wrappers, tight, sunned at edges, vol. VI spine just starting to split at foot. Good.

The first issue documents the groundbreaking proceedings of a “sane, healthful” public discussion of sex hygiene in prostitution to undo a “conspiracy of silence” on this means of spreading venereal disease. Following this first conference, the Club’s committee made recommendations to the state Board of Health, but hesitated on one controversial recommendation regarding whether or not “registration and compulsory examination” of prostitutes could result in diminished venereal disease. The second issue provides a number of opinionated analyses of the results of such a program from 1911-1912 at a municipal clinic in San Francisco, the only one of its kind in the US. These later reports offer conflicting opinions on state-sanctioned health care for prostitutes and its effects on the health of the general population, including the innocent women and children who are victims of men’s immorality. Impassioned arguments for and against legalized prostitution.

The only physical holdings definitively recorded in OCLC outside of California are at Harvard Law.

$125

(Sexual Health) (Quackery) Letter promoting a new treatment for syphilis

(Sexual Health) (Quackery) (Oklahoma). [Cosden Oil & Gas Company?]. Letter promoting a new treatment for syphilis, October 26, 1918. TLS, on a single sheet of Cosden letterhead, reporting on the Fisher treatment, a permanent cure for syphilis. Signature illegible, initials BWG.

References patients treated in 1907, a year after Oklahoma became a state, and the formation of a company to place this remedy before the public. At the time, the single syphilis cure was an arsenic compound invented by German chemist, Paul Ehrlich. It is unclear whether the “Fisher treatment” was the Ehrlich arsenic compound or another quack treatment, or if it was associated with the famed Cosden Oil & Gas Company. However, it was expected by the author to show “large and substantial profits.” and was managed by “Mr. Edward A. Hill” who may have been a geologist for Cosden.

$25

(Sexual Health) (Government) Six Booklets, Reports, and Pamphlets

(Sexual Health) (Government) United States Interdepartmental Social Hygiene Board, Washington, D.C. Six Booklets, Reports, and Pamphlets. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1920. All 8vo, varying from 11-272 pp.; one with folding maps and organizational chart; all in paper wraps with stab holes from previous binding, one front wrap separated, else good.

Scarce documentation of the federal effort to coordinate research and prevention against social disease, within the armed forces and through federal funding to the States. Together a rich document of federal operations and organization in relation to private and state-funded efforts. Including “a study of the records of six thousand delinquent women …” Titles all from 1920, including:

Scientific Researches (January 1920); Program of Protective Social Measures Showing a Type of Federal aid available to States in connection with Venereal Disease Control (February 1920); Scientific Researches: Second Announcement. Section I, Section II (April 1920); Manual for the Various Agents of the United States Interdepartmental Social Hygiene Board with appendices containing the federal law creating the Board, amendments thereto, regulations regarding funds administered by this Board, financial statements, a study of the records of six thousand delinquent women [...]; and Report of the United States Interdepartmental Social Hygiene Board for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1920.

Our research indicates most with only scattered US institutional physical holdings, despite labyrinthine OCLC records indicating otherwise.

$250

(Sexual Health) (Soldiers) Keeping Fit to Fight; Sex Hygiene and Venereal Disease

(Sexual Health) (Soldiers) (WWI) (WWII) War Department and American Social Hygiene Association. Keeping Fit to Fight. [New York?], n.d. [1918?]. 16 pp.; with medical illus.; ex-library, withdrawn stamp on front wrap. Together with: War Department. Sex Hygiene and Venereal Disease. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1942. Small oblong pamphlet, 8 pp.; tape at spine, front wrap heavily marked in contemporary pen. “A copy will be furnished to each recruit upon enlistment.”

Two pamphlets written for newly enlisted soldiers in both World Wars, describing sex and venereal disease in American vernacular. Sections on wet dreams, masturbation, and including contemporary slang, e.g. “Lues” for syphilis.

$50

(Sexual Health) (Soldiers) Evidence in the Case of the Unwary Returnee

(Sexual Health) (WWII) [War Department?; Third Air Force]. Evidence in the Case of the Unwary Returnee. Tampa, FL: [Third Air Force?], n.d. [ca. 1941-1944]. 8vo, [12] pp.; eleven sensational stories of sexual encounters between enlisted men and various promiscuous women (“the old acquaintance” “the weeping widow” “the trim trucker” ) or procurement opportunities (“the Gabby Cabby”), all ending in venereal disease; based on “actual case history reports” reports released by Commanding General, Third Air Force, each with a half-page b/w illus., pages toned; in stapled printed wrapper, wrinkled with losses, sheets sl. loosened.

Not found in OCLC.

$325

How We are Defending the Health of Our Soldiers and Sailors: 309 Houses of Shame Closed

(Antiprostitution) (California) (Socialism) Hichborn, Franklin and L.D. Bohnett. Five Informational Leaflets: Redlight Abatement Acts Prove Effective in Other States; Segregation Does Not Segregate and Regulation Does Not Regulate; Source of the Opposition to the Redlight Abatement Act; State Government by Perjury and Forgery; The California Redlight Abatement Law: It’s Provisions and Purpose. San Francisco, CA: Campaign Committee for the Redlight Abatement Bill, 1914. Five leaflets, each approx. 6-⅜ in. x 3-⅜ in., 4, 6, 6, 8, and 8 pp. Together with Franklin Hichborn, Answers to Arguments … Against the Redlight Abatement Act, [California]: n.p., [1914] 8 pp. Most with small ex-libris stamp from the California Commonwealth Club and penciled shelf labels or scattered other marks or edgewear, a couple of small closed tears. Good.

Propagandist description of the controversy arising from California’s Red Light Abatement Act, a.k.a. the Bohnett-Grant Act. The Act was signed into law in April, 1913, but was contested by a statewide voter referendum held in November 1914, where it was affirmed. Like other Red Light Abatement laws, it ended segregated “redlight districts” and transformed public nuisance law to allow the government to take action against landlords whose property was used for brothels or “lewdness.” Importantly it also allowed for any resident citizen of the state to “maintain an action” against a specific property, empowering communities to act directly, without involving law enforcement.

Many high-profile supporters of the Act were Reformists and socialists. The leaflets here are mostly written by journalist Franklin Hichborn, an associate of prominent reformer John Randolph Haynes and his suffragist wife, Doris Haynes. Hichborn takes aim directly at prostitution’s profiteers and the link between capital and sex. One pull quote, from a municipal judge in Portland, OR, sounds almost contemporary in its appeal to move away from “criminal prosecutions, because [they] are usually directed at the pawn in the system while the real culprit, the man who knowingly permitted the use of his property for immoral purposes … is allowed to go unwhipped.”

Together with:

(Antiprostitution) (California) (WWI) State Law Enforcement and Protective League. How We are Defending the Health of Our Soldiers and Sailors: 309 Houses of Shame Closed. San Francisco: State Law Enforcement and Protective League, 1918. Trifold pamphlet [6] pp.; illus. from photos, two small closed tears, edges worn, one small repair?

Exemplary and rare document of the overheated rhetoric in the fight against prostitution and its special urgency during wartime. The League’s purpose is declared to be the protection of men in service and purity of home, primarily through “suppression of the vice exploiter” and “rehabilitation of the vice victim.” The pamphlet is primarily a report on legal actions brought under the Redlight Abatement Act. Seven recently closed “dens of vice” in the San Francisco Bay area are illustrated next to the descriptions of hundreds of others, and evidence of “white slave” trafficking. Not found in OCLC.

SOLD

Thirteen Pamphlets, Offprints, and Reprints from the American Social Hygiene Association

(Antiprostitution) Thirteen Pamphlets, Offprints, and Reprints from the American Social Hygiene Association and the Journal of Social Hygiene, 1917-1942. New York, NY: American Social Hygiene Association, 1917-1942. Various sizes, most octavo, 2-40 pp. each, most 8-10 pp.; condition varies, good to near fine, some illus. wrappers, some with ex-library stamps from the Jewish Welfare Board, Gainesville, TX, a few penciled shelf labels.

In 1913 several national antiprostitution and public health organizations united to form the American Social Hygiene Association (ASHA). Based in New York, their founders included reformers and philanthropists such as Jane Addams and John D. Rockefeller, Jr. The ASHA supported campaigns to end prostitution and redlight districts (and their attendant venereal diseases) through scientific inquiry, social reform, and community action. They cooperated with medical organizations, law enforcement, and social welfare groups to develop public information campaigns. The documents in the present collection represent the wide range of ASHA’s activities, with a particular focus on WWI and WWII when the health of enlisted men was used as political leverage against commercialized vice. Includes a pamphlet reprinting a speech by Fiorello LaGuardia that captures the somewhat comedic ambivalence of many politicians to “clean communities.”

They especially emphasize the turn during the 1920s at ASHA and nationally toward punitive, legal solutions to prostitution the demonized women and sidelined charitable or rehabilitation efforts.

$250

Includes:

American Social Hygiene Association. Does Prostitution Breed Crime? Law Enforcement Responsibility in Delinquency Prevention. New York, NY: American Social Hygiene Association, [1947?]. 8-1/2 x 11 in., [4] pp. leaflet, toned. Emphasizing law enforcement solutions.

American Social Hygiene Association. Why Let it Burn? [cover title]. New York, NY: American Social Hygiene Association, 1941. Stapled leaflet, 15 pp.; in illus. color self-wrapper, very good. “Prostitution must be recognized as a Fifth Columnist in our midst.” Although another pamphlet was issued by the ASHA under the same title in 1919, this edition appears updated with new research and arguments relating to America’s wartime concerns.

Six Offprints and Reprints from the Journal of Social Hygiene, 1918-1941. New York: The American Social Hygiene Association, 1918-1941. All octavo, 2-40 pp. each, most 8-10 pp.; some edgewear with small closed tears, ex-libris stamps, most from the Jewish Welfare board, Gainesville Texas, one with penciled shelf label. The longest articles, from 1919 and 1920, offer a history of the antiprostitution movements in New York City (the “Committee of Fourteen”) and California (Redlight Abatement Act). Another article, 1936, addresses the issue of legalized prostitution

American Social Hygiene Association. The Case Against Prostitution. New York, NY: American Social Hygiene Association, 1940. Pamphlet, unfolded approx. 16-½ x 10-¾ in., [12] panels, recto an informational broadside suitable for posting; sl. toned at edges, front panel with ex-library stamp, Jewish Welfare Board, Gainesville, TX. Rare ephemera intended to promote the “clean community environment in which prostitution cannot flourish.” Includes a “practical program” for community action.

Johnson, Bascom; LaGuardia, Fiorello; and Jean B. Pinney. Three American Social Hygiene Association Pamphlets, 1940-1942. 8vo, 8-24 pp. each; one illus., stapled wrappers, sl. toning and edgewear, good.

Reprinted from the Journal for Social Hygiene: How Fares the Battle Against Prostitution (Pinney); Prostitution and Quackery in Relation to Syphyilis Control (Johnson); and “An Address” (LaGuardia).

LaGuardia pamphlet reprints a speech including a jokey intro in which the Mayor seems confused about why he is speaking at a conference about Commercialized Vice and not at a leather or furniture convention.

Kneeland, George J. Commercialized Prostitution and the Use of Property. New York, NY: New York Social Hygiene Society, 1917. 8vo, 8 pp.; ½ in. closed tear on upper edge goes through entire pamphlet; stapled printed wrapper, edges worn, with ex-library stamp and penciled shelf label, fair. Excerpted from Social Hygiene, Vol. II, No. 4 (Oct. 1916).

(Antiprostitution) Report and recommendations of the Wisconsin Legislative Committee [...]

(Antiprostitution) Wisconsin Vice Committee. Report and recommendations of the Wisconsin Legislative Committee to Investigate the White Slave Traffic and Kindred Subjects. Madison, WI: The Committee, 1914. 8vo, 246 pp.; printed wrapper, splitting at foot, ex-library with stamps and pencil shelf-mark.

$25

(Antiprostitution) Report of the Commission for the Investigation of the White Slave Traffic [...]

(Antiprostitution) (Sex Trafficking) Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Commission for Investigation of White Slave Traffic. House - No. 2281: Report of the Commission for the Investigation of the White Slave Traffic, So Called. Boston: Wright & Potter, 1914. 8vo, 86 pp.; numerous charts and tables; stapled wrapper with ex-library stamp and penciled shelf label, otherwise very good.

Report on extensive investigation “to determine, so far as is possible, by what means and to what extent women and girls are induced or compelled by others to lead an immoral life …” “to endeavor to devise plans for preventing the evils it finds …” and a draft of bills “as may be necessary to carry its recommendations into effects.”

At the center of the report is a significant amount of sociological research conducted by the commission during interviews with known prostitutes and johns. While refuting entirely the “vague rumors” and myths of “white slavery,” fascinating details emerge about the early life of prostitutes in Massachusetts, and the commercial and penal systems they entered when they began their “immoral life.” With proposals for laws to address the “social evils” of dance halls, street solicitation, hotels, “call houses,” sexually transmitted disease, etc.

Rare in physical format.

$125

(Antiprostitution) (Mann White-Slave Act) Group of Instructive Literature

(Antiprostitution) (Mann White-Slave Act) Group of Instructive Literature Against Forced Prostitution, i.e. White Slavery, and Supporting Rescue Homes and Charities, 1871-1945.

Together six examples reflecting seventy years of popular hysteria over the plight of innocent young women forced into prostitution, tales that usually end in rescue and salvation or death. Two items of particular interest, one an evangelical biography of Evangeline Reams and her Ohio homes for wayward girls; the other an unusual pamphlet warning mothers and daughters about the devices used by “white slavers” on their victims.

$125

Including:

*Bingham, Theodore A. The Girl That Disappears: The Real Facts about White Slave Traffic. Boston: Gorham Press, 1911. 8vo, 87 pp.; illus. frontispiece; cloth, a bit rubbed. Very Good. Written by the former police commissioner for Greater New York.

*Clark, Harry. Evangeline Reams: A Brief Sketch of Her Life and Story of The Friends Rescue Home. [Damascus, OH]: Friends Rescue Home, n.d. [after 1940]. 8vo, 131 pp.; illus. from photos of Ms. Reams, the rescue homes, the rescued girls, etc. Printed wrapper, rubbed and lightly sunned. Very Good.

*Morse, Northrop. Peach Bloom: An Original Play in Four Acts. New York, NY: Medical Review of Reviews, 1913. 8vo, 184 pp.; publisher’s cloth, corners bumped, front board with small marks and stain.

*Muhlenberg, W. A. The Woman and Her Accusers: A Plea for the Midnight Mission …. New York: NY: Pliny F. Smith, 1871. 8vo, 72 pp.; cloth with gilt title, corners bumped. Good.

*Pratt, William H. God Amid the Shadows. Indianapolis, IN: N.p., n.d. 8vo, 153 pp.; blue pictorial wrapper, well worn.

*A Tragic End: A Timely Warning to Mothers and Daughters, Also on Exposure of Some of the Devices Used by ‘White Slavers’ for Catching Unwary Victims. Accordion pamphlet, illus. Los Angeles, CA: Free Tract Society, n.d. With rescue home directory, after 1945.

(Antiprostitution) (Socialism) The Social Evil: Its Cause Effect and Cure

(Antiprostitution) (Socialism) Greer, J.H. The Social Evil: Its Cause Effect and Cure. Chicago, IL: Self-published, 1913. Small 8vo, 64 pp.; in printed wrap, dampstain at foot affecting first few leaves. Together with two other editions of the same: Greer, J.H. The Social Evil and the Remedy. Chicago, IL: Charles H. Kerr & Co., n.d. Each: small 8vo, 64 pp.; in color patterned wraps, both with losses to rear wrap where ads for The International Socialist Review are given.

A history of prostitution is given by the author, as well as its cure, socialism. Three editions, including a self-published version, helping to establish a date for this text, otherwise undated in recorded sources.

$40

La prostitution [...] et ses multiples aspects

(Sex Work) (Anarchism) Armand, E[mile]. La prostitution, son histoire, sa définition, les conditions de sa disparition et ses multiples aspects. Paris: L’en déhors, 1933. Deuxième tirage. 8vo, 24 pp.; uncut, stapled pictorial wrapper, edges toned and sl. worn.

A pamphlet in support of prostitution and a radical new sexual ethic, including free love and camaraderie amoureuse by individual anarchist Émile Armand. Advertisements on rear wrap and front wrap verso for additional anarchist publications on sexuality and libertinage.

We suspect that this is the first and only edition given that all recorded copies have the same stated “deuxième tirage.”

$150

[O]n the illegality and inexpediency of segregating commercialized vice in St. Louis

(Antiprostitution) (Missouri) Committee of One-hundred for the Suppression of Commercialized Vice in St. Louis. Brief in support of citizens’ memorial to the Board of police commissioners of St. Louis, Missouri, on the illegality and inexpediency of segregating commercialized vice in St. Louis. St. Louis: n.p., 1914. 8vo, 32 pp.; stapled self-wrapper, sl. toned at edges, one small closed tear to front wrap, ex-library stamp and penciled shelf label, very good.

Report on the “fallacy of segregation” and in support of the red light abatement efforts of the St. Louis Police. With many reports from other cities nationwide.

$60

(Sex Work) Group of Sex Work Ephemera from Brazil, England, and the US

(Sex Work) Group of Sex Work Ephemera from Brazil, England, and the US, 1975-2001.

Comprised of: Hustlers’ Rights Project, We Are the Target [San Francisco, CA: 1975], (10) stapled fliers from the Bay Area Gay Liberation organizing against antiprositution activities, verso printed with mailing list? of California organizations; Coyote and Project AWARE, Sex in the Age of Aids: A forum for women who work in the sex industry, [San Francisco, CA: 1985], small pink flier, printed recto and verso, corner with loss, advertising AIDS antibody testing and a public panel conversation; King’s Cross Women’s Centre, Centrepiece 5: The Hooker & The Beak, London, 1987; W.H.I.S.P.E.R.: Women Hurt in Systems of Prostitution Engaged in Revolt, Vol. I, No. 3 (Winter 1986-87) and Vol. II, No. 1 (Spring 1987), New York: NY. Together with Maria José Bacelar Guimarães, “Empresário procura mulher jovem, morena, bonita, liberal…”: Explorando os anúncios de estrangeiros, Salvador, Brasil: Centro Humanitário de Apoio à Mulher, 2002, 106 pp. with bibliography.

$150

(Sex Work) Group of Nine American Sex Worker Zines and Magazines

(Sex Work) Group of Nine American Sex Worker Zines and Magazines, 1997-2019.

Various sizes, approx. 30-80 pp., profusely illustrated, all offering first-person commentary on the politics of prostitution and/or pornography. Most authors pseudonymous with limited publishing details. Scattered OCLC holdings, one unrecorded.

Comprising: Proof your man ain’t shit: Death to FOSTA & SESTA, 2019; Land of make believe and dress up: some of my experiences doing sex work in NYC as a queer anarchist, New York: 20-?; Danzine: an exciting quarterly for ladies in the ‘biz, No. 12, Portland, OR: 1997; Rocket Queen, Nos 1-2 (all published?), Asheville, NC: 2005-?; $pread [Spread], Vol. 1, Nos. 1-3, New York, NY: 2005. Together with a color promo card for the “2nd Sex Worker Film & Video Festival,” 2001.

SOLD

Six Posters from an Advertising Campaign for the Margo St. James Task Force on Prostitution

(Sex Work) [St. James, Margo]. De Souza, Neville and Gerard Vaglio. Six Posters from an Advertising Campaign for the Margo St. James Task Force on Prostitution. San Francisco: COYOTE, [1995]. Six posters, each 22 x 14-1/8 in.; b/w offset prints, rolled, with occasional horizontal creases from being pressed while rolled, more noticeable to some posters; minor edge wear; creased corner to one poster. Very Good.

Six of seven posters produced for a 1995 ad campaign, part of St. James’ and COYOTE’s longstanding work to decriminalize prostitution in California. Produced pro bono by sympathetic professional designers Neville de Souza and Gerard Vaglio, the posters pair arresting images with stark text. They address the legal and physical vulnerability of street prostitutes, the stigmatization of arrest records for future employment, and the cost of San Francisco’s anti-prostitution police squad (at the time more than $5 million annually), among other issues.

According to contemporary news reports, 7,000 of the posters were produced and distributed throughout the city. Not surprisingly, the campaign was controversial, particularly with the city’s Board of Supervisors Prostitution Task Force, whose members felt the posters promoted prostitution. Melissa Farley, well-known anti-trafficking activist, responded to the ad campaign “Just because the oldest jobs in the world are slavery and pimping doesn’t mean we as a society should support racism and prostitution.” James and COYOTE staffer Carol Leigh were both on the task force, six other members resigned “in disgust” over the dispute, claiming the panel had been “stacked” with advocates of legalization (SFGate).

Few of the posters appear to have survived, we find no holdings in OCLC or examples on the market.

ON HOLD

Women’s Forum on Prostitution Rights: Program

(Sex Work) (Rights) Women’s Forum on Prostitution Rights. Program. San Francisco: Women’s Forum on Prostitution Rights, [1984]. Single pink sheet, 8-½ x 5-½ in., printed recto and verso, some wear, creases, good.

Verso supplies the four-day program for a conference on prostitution rights in July, 1984 (date from Hooker’s Ball advertisement). Speakers include many well-known advocates and activists for prostitutes’ rights, including Margaret Prescod, Margo St. James, Delores French, Gloria Lockett, et al. Recto advertises the infamous Hooker’s Ball and the Coyote Film Festival.

$30

De l’extinction de la prostitution: pétition au Sénat, session de 1865

Meugy, Jules. De l’extinction de la prostitution: pétition au Sénat, session de 1865 [...]. Paris: Garnier, n.d., ca. 1865.

Small 8vo, 71, 36 pp.; text followed by 36 pp. catalogue of Garnier Frères, catalogue pages uncut; in printed wrapper with advert, rear wrap abraded at corner.

Full title: De l’extinction de la prostitution. Pétition au sénat, session de 1865. Par le Dr. Jules Meugy, suivie du discours de M. le procureur général Dupin sur le luxe effréné des femmes prononcé à l’occasion de cette pétition.

$65

La Lotta Contro La Prostitutzione

Pannain, Remo. La Lotta Contro La Prostitutzione. Benevenuto: Borelli, n.d., ca. 1929. 8vo, 28 pp.; a few pencil marks in margin; in printed stapled wrapper.

Unusual legal treatise published in Southern Italy about the struggle there against prostitution.

No North American holdings recorded in OCLC.

$95

(Courtship) (Christian) How to pick a wife [...]

(Courtship) (Christian) Orr, William. How to pick a wife for Christian fellows. Wheaton, IL: Scripture Press, 1953. 8vo, 32 pp.; color stapled wrapper, small area of discoloration on front wrap. Together with Lovasik, Lawrence. Clean love in courtship. St. Paul, MN: Fathers Rumble & Carty, Radio Replies Press, n.d. [ca. 1948]. 8vo, 73 pp.; pictorial stapled wrapper, lightly rubbed.

Advice for Protestants (Orr) and Catholics (Lovasik) looking for love, addressing both spiritual and practical questions, e.g. Where to Look for Her, How to Look for Her, Self-Denial, Practical Tips for Dates, and the pitfalls of Parked Cars and Dangerous Reading.

OCLC finds no North American holdings for Orr, a few for Lovasik.

$55

(Courtship) (Theater) How to Choose a Wife: Ten Tips for Men Who are Threatened with Matrimony

(Courtship) (Theatre) (Women) [Fairfax, Marian]; [The Dorner Players]. How to Choose a Wife: Ten Tips for Men Who are Threatened with Matrimony. [Elmira, NY], n.d. [ca. 1913-1914]. Small handbill promoting a staging of Fairfax’s play, “The Talker,” in Elmira, New York, by a traveling actor’s troupe. Satirical text presumably by Fairfax.

Ephemera related to the screenwriter and playwright Marian Fairfax’s early Broadway hit, “The Talker” (1912). Fairfax broke ground for women on stage and in Hollywood, writing a number of theatrical hits and silent films. She formed her own Hollywood production company in 1921.

$50

(Dating) (Asian-American) Donahue Transcript 02244

(Dating) (Asian-American) Donahue, Phil. Donahue Transcript 02244. Cincinnati, OH: Multimedia Entertainment, Inc., 1984. 8vo, 23 pp.; stapled show transcript regarding Asian women and Asian mail-order bride services, with discussion of stereotypes, sexuality, religion.

A few scattered holdings of Donahue transcripts exist in OCLC, not of this show.

$200

(Dating) (Internet) A Girl’s Guide to Dating a Geek.

(Dating) (Internet - Culture) Inouye, Omi M. A Girl’s Guide to Dating a Geek. [London]: 2007. 8vo, 168 pp.; in pictorial wrapper, scratched and worn.

Guide with graphs, case studies, fieldwork reports, and exercises designed to help the “females identify geeks using a helpful Geek Test, categorize them into distinct subclasses, understand and cope with their foibles, and if necessary, acclimatize to their culture.” “[D]iscover how to plot revenge, diagnose common geek ailments, and find the perfect geek gift.”

Highly specific moment in the evolution of 2000s geek culture. OCLC: 2 North American holdings.

$60

(Dating) (Internet - Social Aspects) Collection of 13 Zines, 1999-2014

(Dating) (Internet - Social Aspects) Collection of 13 Zines, 1999-2014?.

Overall offering a broad perspective of contemporary dating culture, self-presentation, and sexuality. Most with fewer than 2 OCLC holdings, many others unrecorded.

Most 8-½ x 5-½ in., with illus. stapled wrappers, two single vol. octavo fold format, one sewn, most 8-40 pp.; profusely illustrated zines with anecdotes on internet dating including apps, Craigslist, social media, and sexual encounters. A few overtly feminist and/or queer, many compiling real classifieds. One mostly in haiku. Very Good.

Includes: B&D Press, Naked on the 6 Train: M4M, n.d.; Lizz Carlton and Mollie Underwood, Eds., Garbage Never Looked So Good, Irrelevant Press, n.d.; Alexandra Montclair, Classified Casanova, n.d.; Nicky Rodriguez, How (Not) to get a woman, n.d., and How (Not) to get a woman, Vol. 2, n.d.; Aaron Mew, Aaron’s Guide to Getting Girls, n.d. [California? ca. 1999?], Up Magazine, Vol. 2, No. 5: Modern Dating, St. Paul, MN: 2000; Awkward Ladies Club, Never date dudes from the internet: responses to a Craigslist ad, 2005; Andy Yates, Celebrity Blind Date! Starring Mel Gibson & Sarah Palin, 2010; Carrie Colpitts, My aim is true #6: You are not alone, [Chicago, IL]: n.d. [2011?]; Mission Mini Comix, Quincy’s Terrible, Horrible, Worst-ever Blind Date, San Francisco, CA: [2011]; Teppei Ando, I miss you already, Stranger - m4w - 52 …, [2012?]; Red Velvet, Things men have told me about my body, [2014]; Red Velvet and How are Your Insides, Have you had sex with this person, [2014].

$350

Kissing: the art of osculation, curiously, historically, humorously, and poetically considered

Manson, George. Kissing: the art of osculation, curiously, historically, humorously, and poetically considered. Brooklyn, NY: Union Book, 1888. 5-½ x 4-⅛ in., 103 pp.; small loss to forecorner on title page, stapled with orig. illus. wrapper present but with loss at spine, front cover separated, later tipped in to title-page, good.

Charming book on the history of kissing with hundreds of anecdotes including “how to kiss and how to receive a kiss,” “when you may kiss with impunity,” “men kissing each other [...],” “humorous stories of kissing in tunnels,” “kissing customs of different countries,” and “the kiss of death.” Makes “a nice little present for a lady.”

The illustrated wrapper by A.T. Lumley, with its uncommon depiction of two men kissing is not mentioned in 2 of the 3 existing OCLC records (Library of Congress, USC), and is not present in the final (UFL) copy.

SOLD

Le Véritable Guide des Jeunes Amoureux: Nouveaux Recueil des Lettres

(Etiquette) (Love Letters) Le Véritable Guide des Jeunes Amoureux: Nouveaux Recueil des Lettres. Montréal: Librairie Beauchemin Limitée, n.d. (ca. 1902-1908). 5-¾ x 3-⅞ in., 83 pp.; stapled pictorial blue wrapper, chipped at spine, separated at front.

Enchanting guide to romantic letter writing for young men and women. Includes extensive templates for all the awkward circumstances of love from initial introductions to marriage proposals but also multiple examples for rebuffing inappropriate advances, confirming shared affections, requesting a portrait, flirtations, breakups, reconciliations, complaints about absences, favorable and negative responses to marriage proposals, etc.

The publisher Beauchemin was incorporated under the name “Beauchemin Limitée” in 1902, it moved from the title page’s listed premises in 1908. OCLC locates four examples in Canadian institutional holdings, none in the US; some may represent a much later printing (1950s).

$95

Opal Correspondence Club Ephemera

(Courtship) (Correspondence) Reasoner, Walter E. [and Opal N. Reasoner]. Opal Correspondence Club Ephemera. Rosiere, New York: Opal Correspondence Club, [1919]. Six items: two personal ad directories, [16] and [8] pp., one dated membership offer, one blank “Gentleman’s Application,” an introductory letter, and a trade card. Overall very good, minor wear at directory spines.

Items presumed to constitute a man’s introductory package to the Opal Correspondence Club, a matrimonial agency. The Club was named after the wife of its president and manager, Walter; Opal Reasoner is also listed as the Manager of the Ladies Department.

The blank application and the personal ads capture the pragmatic aspect, for both men and women, of many lower-middle-class and middle-class marriages in the first quarter of the 20th-century. Emphasis is given to income, inheritance, real estate holdings, children, hereditary disease, and religion. Personal questions somewhat limited: “Are you of good morals?” “Do you prefer city, town, or country life?” The Reasoner’s club was strictly limited to white applicants. The “updated” directory includes the new rule “No Colored People Accepted.”

Walter and Opal were entrepreneurial in other fields. The directory includes advertisements for their “Minette” correspondence photo service and two different pocket multi-tools.

We are unable to locate other references to this agency.

$275

(Trade Card) McDonnell’s Matrimonial Association.

(Courtship) (Trade Card) (Correspondence Marriage) McDonnell’s Matrimonial Association. [Lady Member]. Chicago: n.p., n.d, ca. 1900. 5-⅛ x 3 in., printed recto and verso; soiled with creases, older cellophane holding top corner with small loss.

Advertising a free directory of 2000+ ladies in the US and Canada with a “view to amusement, mutual improvement [and] matrimony.” Including photographs. “Would you like a rich girl, a poor girl, a beautiful woman, a buxom widow, a pretty maiden, a well-educated young lady, a farmer’s daughter, or a good housekeeper? We have them all …”

We are unable to identify other references to Walter McDonnell’s Chicago service.

$125