The Leather Archives & Museum ( LA&M ) celebrated 25 years of leather history Sept. 17 with an anniversary banquet at Francesca's Bryn Mawr in Edgewater and a program at the Rogers Park LA&M headquarters.
Master of Ceremonies, LA&M board member and International Mr. Leather Coordinator Jon Krongaard welcomed the 100 people in attendance and presented Randall "Bearman" Klett with the President's Award. Krongaard specifically noted Joseph Bean's ( LA&M's first executive director and paid staffer, who was unable to attend that evening ) contributions to the LA&M, most notably finding the building where the archives and museum is currently housed and making them famous around the world.
LA&M received two monetary gifts that evening—Sir Bruce of Leather SINS gave the organization $33,000 while Chip Beam of Full Kit Gear gave it $25,000.
Gayle Rubin, a scholar as well as a founding member of LA&M's board of directors, spoke about how archives and museums have moved history out in the open, where people of all economic backgrounds could access it. Rubin explained that the LA&M is a part of this evolution of making all kinds of historical things available for the masses. She noted that, in order to make this happen, organizations need archivists so their collections can be processed and cataloged for easy reference, and the LA&M has done just that by hiring its first full-time archivist and collections librarian in 2013, Jakob VanLammeren.
LA&M Executive Director Rick Storer hailed the work librarians and archivists do for the wider world and introduced Leon Grossman who noted the contributions Jeff Storer ( LA&M director of operations and Rick's husband ) has made to LA&M over the years.
"I never thought I'd be so blessed to begin my archival career at the LA&M, said VanLammeren. "This is a profoundly moving place … a place for blessed memories to be exhibited and not hidden and the place I've called home for the last four years."
VanLammeren noted that during his tenure he's worked with 430 researchers, received 25 archival collections, managed 20 volunteers and interns, given 50 plus tours, created eight in-house and traveling exhibits and created over 250 catalogue records. He said that many organizations around the world have utilized the LA&M collections over the years to illuminate what they were teaching and showcasing to their audiences. VanLammeren explained that the LA&M is a sacred place that will only become more relevant in the coming years.
Two teams ( consisting of three people each ) played Leather Archives Jeopardy with Illinois Ms. Leather Pride 2016 winner Sarah Sloan serving as the host ahead of LA&M President Chuck Renslow's keynote address.
"I can't tell you how proud I am to stand before you tonight," said Renslow. "Twenty-five years ago I stood in the basement of our home and looked at a wall of file cabinets and a stack of boxes. My partner died that year; his name was Dom Orejudos but you probably know him better as the erotic artist, Etienne. I wondered, what should I do with Dom's artwork, with my own archives and that basement full of history. I talked to other people, including our co-founder, Tony DeBlase and in all those conversations, I never, ever, ever could have conceived we'd be where we are today."
Renslow explained that they started with Etienne's artwork, his archives and DeBlase's Drummer Magazine's and a storefront on Clark Street during the early days of the AIDS crisis. He noted that as people in the leather community died of AIDS the archives received their documents and photos.
"With the self-realization of our own mortality, many, many members of the leather fetish communities followed suit," said Renslow. "Physical donations came flowing in."
Renslow noted that he never could've envisioned a day when the LA&M would need to move to a bigger property nor that they would own their present facility outright.
"Over the next 10 years, our collections will continue to grow," said Renslow. "We'll need a new facility … and we better get started today including beginning a dialogue with the community and fundraising … So you want to know my vision of the future of the LA&M … I want to be standing in a new facility telling you what I think the next 10 years might look like."
CLAW of Cleveland, Ohio, was the principal sponsor of the evening's festivities.
An after-party took place at leather nightspot Touche following the banquet and program.
See LeatherArchives.org/ for more information.
Archival tour
As part of Leather Archives & Museum's 25th-anniversary weekend, Archivist/Collections Librarian Jakob VanLammeren, along with intern Noah Barth, conducted interactive tours of the facility's temperature- and humidity-controlled archives on the morning of Sept. 17.
Attendees got to touch, read and/or view ephemera, vertical files, magazines, T-shirts and other items that covered various events, movements, influential people, organizations and nightspots connected with leather, kink, S&M, fetishism and other alternative ways of living.
