Back Again

The Studios of Key West
March 6-27, 2005

Shortly after US President Franklin D. Roosevelt died in 1945, conservatives began to amass power and attempted to reintroduce what they believed to be “proper” principles. In 1954, “One Nation Under God” was added to the US Pledge of Allegiance, and the motto “In God We Trust” was included in US paper currency.

McCarthyism spread the country in a stated attempt to keep America safe from socialists and communists.  Additionally, it was an organized and concerted effort to prevent homosexuals from working in military and civilian jobs through the Lavender Scare. 

In 1946, New Jersey-based Francis Willard Ewing published  The Hobby Directory – A National Association of Hobbyists for Men and Boys.  It was a modest pamphlet that purported to connect hobbyists who shared similar interests.  It was sold in hobby stores around the nation.  In reality, it was the first publication containing personal ads as a way for gay men to meet each other.  It was at a time when it was illegal for LGBTQ+ people to assemble in the same location.

It was soon followed by other early LGBTQ+ publications such as The Ladder, Mattachine Review,  and Physique Pictorial. These publications led to the blossoming of gay culture in the 1960s, the Stonewall uprising in 1969, and the period of enlightenment in the gay revolution of the 1970s.

In this exhibition, through digital collages, I have paired images of how men saw themselves in advertisements from 1946 editions of Life, Look, and other popular magazines of the day with the actual text of the ads from The Hobby Directory.

Today, in 2025, as individuals work to insert religion into governmental secular life and to discourage freedom of speech and expression for LGBTQ+ individuals, this exhibition explores the choices people had 80 years ago. It allows us to imagine the options we have today to create community.