After Jay Hollenburger and Arthur Slaughter met at Rice College within the early Sixties, the younger couple commemorated their relationship with a metal red-and-blue signal intertwining their first initials. The piece was on outstanding show of their Houston residence for years till they prolonged the piece, bringing it to a peak of 5 toes (~1.5 meters). The addition — a yellow semicircle forming the tail of the letter “G” — paid tribute to Gary Grether, who entered the connection round 1970, based on a buddy of the throuple who collectively turned generally known as JAG.
The connection was extensively documented throughout hundreds of Polaroids meticulously cataloged by Hollenburger, and upon his passing final fall, half of the pictures — totaling 9,700, practically all captioned — had been acquired in an property sale by Adam Schachter, the proprietor of Houston’s Langdon Manor Books. Now, over 59 years since JAG’s romance started, they are going to be within the highlight on the sixty fifth version of the New York Worldwide Antiquarian E-book Honest, hosted by the Antiquarian Booksellers’ Affiliation of America. The photograph assortment might be on view and on the market on the upcoming annual occasion, held at Manhattan’s Park Avenue Armory from April 3–6.
Left: Polaroid from Hollenburger’s assortment that includes the again of an embroidered purple button-down with the phrases “National Gay Rodeo Chaplain”; proper: Photograph that includes the JAG emblem that was displayed prominently within the residence of Hollenburger, Slaughter, and Grether (photographs courtesy Langdon Manor Books)
Hollenburger’s Polaroid assortment begins in 1964 and runs by 1991, documenting LGBTQ+ occasions within the Houston space together with the numerous events hosted at JAG’s condo, the place guests would lounge across the pool or socialize on sofas beneath a bookcase. The photographs additionally chronicle occasions elsewhere, such because the “fly-in” events organized by the queer fraternity group Gamma Mu that gathered queer males from throughout the US in cities like Boston, Denver, and San Diego.
One {photograph} focuses on the again of a purple button-down embroidered with the phrase “National Gay Rodeo Chaplain”; in one other picture, an individual carrying lengthy night gloves and a Cinderella-like ballgown with a cut-out rear bows to a grinning viewers.
Hollenburger’s assortment spans practically three many years of his relationship with Slaughter and Grether, who each died within the early-90s from AIDS-related issues. descriptions detailing (photograph courtesy Langdon Manor Books)
“[Art] and Jay were unapologetically ‘out,’ which was a very daring stance in the mid-’60s — especially in Texas,” David Smith, who lived with Hollenburger and Slaughter in 1965, informed Schacter after the 2 linked by Fb. “They just lived openly as a gay couple and presented that to the world to take it or leave it.”
The three-way relationship lasted round 20 years till Grether’s demise from AIDS-related issues in 1990. As a pair, Slaughter and Hollenburger had been collectively for about 34 years till 1995, when Slaughter additionally died from AIDS; Hollenburger died at age 83 final September. All three are buried collectively in Houston.
Photograph from John “Jay” Hollenburger’s assortment of Polaroids documenting the throuple JAG and their huge social circle (photograph courtesy Langdon Manor Books)
Schachter mentioned that this might be Langdon Manor’s first time taking part within the annual ebook expo, which attracts a fleet of veteran bibliophiles and fresh-faced collectors to discover an assortment of objects on the cross-section of historical past, literature, and artwork.
This 12 months’s honest will characteristic over 200 uncommon ebook sellers from the US and overseas, together with the Brooklyn-based uncommon bookseller Fugitive Supplies. Based in 2020 by archivist and writer Daylon Orr, the enterprise focuses on the preservation of queer, underground, non-Western materials historical past and, as their Fb web page describes, “the disruption of informational privilege through publishing and bookselling.” They primarily work with universities and museum collections, and have usually participated in artwork ebook gala’s like Printed Matter’s gala’s in New York and Los Angeles, and the San Francisco Artwork E-book Honest.
Among the paperwork that Fugitive Supplies might be bringing to the expo embody (left) unique posters by the Younger Lords and (proper) works by the Mexican print collective Taller de Gráfica Fashionable. (photograph courtesy Fugitive Supplies)
Whereas Orr has attended the antiquarian ebook expo earlier than, this would be the first time Fugitive Supplies might be exhibiting with its personal sales space, he informed Hyperallergic.
“We’re looking forward to seeing a lot of the librarians we work with and making connections with more who are trying to think about how to diversify both private collections and institutional collections,” Orr mentioned.
The bookseller plans to convey swaths of unseen materials to the honest, together with zines, gadgets and ephemera associated to New York queer historical past and Chicano vogue; a signed copy of Moonshots (1966) by Lebanese-American poet and artist Etel Adnan; an early David Hammons exhibition catalog; work by queer former intercourse employee and activist Annie Sprinkle; early-Twentieth-century Mexican prints that just lately exhibited on the Metropolitan Museum of Artwork; and unique posters and pictures from the Younger Lords Social gathering in New York.
“We’re just excited to participate and share in this celebration of the history of printed material and ephemera,” Orr mentioned.
The Polaroids in Hollenburger’s assortment had been meticulously captioned with descriptions detailing dates, names, and areas (photograph courtesy Langdon Manor Books)
The Brooklyn-based bookseller Fugitive Supplies might be bringing numerous archival print materials and objects tied to New York Metropolis queer historical past. (photograph courtesy Fugitive Supplies)
The Brooklyn bookseller may also have archived images by queer former intercourse employee and activist Annie Sprinkle. (photograph courtesy Fugitive Supplies)
