We're Here: Inside a Gay Photo Album of the '40s and '50s
Figuring out who these people are or were is something I could spend a lifetime doing — and in some ways, have
December 4, 2025

Earlier this year, I bought a vintage photo album said to belong to a gay man. I love preserving gay historical ephemera and spending forever and a day sussing out who the people pictures are/were, fitting all the pieces together, so it was a no-brainer.
All I knew for sure was it contained a pile of photographs that showed unquestionably gay men, some drag shots at a party, some commercial beefcake images and what appeared to be some genuine, albeit minor, celebrity autographs.
When I received it, I set about trying to figure it out. What’s odd about it is it’s fairly pristine and the images are arranged quite cleanly, and yet the content is a little all over the place, including some pages that are strictly personal images, others that mix personal images with sexy Hollywood hunks and still others that are devoted to ephemera, like invitations and business cards.
I half-wondered if someone had haphazardly put a bunch of vintage images together in an album to make it feel more worthwhile as a historical piece, but there is definitely a thread, and the thread seems to be images of a man named Ed/Eddy.
The images of Ed included some childhood images that looked ‘30s, and then lots of shots from the ‘40s, ‘50s and ‘60s.
Frustratingly, it wasn’t exactly clear he had created the album, even if that makes the most sense. There are a few captions, but just a few, to guide me.


One man whose face is seen throughout is the Nordic femme type who is all over this post, so it would seem logical to assume he is the “Eddy” to whom several celebrity photos are addressed. But another notation suggests he might have been the nephew of the creator of the photo album. Odd to have so many photos of one’s gay nephew.
The other clue is among the ephemera. There is a custom New Year’s greeting from an “Ed and Peter” in P-Town, and I was able to trace them to Howard’s End, a B&B in Provincetown that was built in 1840 and that became, in 1946, the first openly gay guesthouse in what would become the gayest enclave on the Eastern Seaboard.
Peter Hand established the business with his partner Edward Daminger (who died in 1970) that year, running it until his death in 1994. It was bought by Howard Weiner, who in turn died in 2015, and it’s now run by Howard’s widower and his husband.

The current owners kindly sent me an image of Ed and Peter. They assumed it was a match to the one couple image I have — but I don’t really see it.

Usually, when I post stories, I like to have considered every angle and to have parsed my post for meaning — resolution. In this case, because I have acquired so much fantastic stuff, and am in the process of archiving so much art, porn, ephemera and personal photography, I decided simply to do something of which I don’t do enough: SHARE. So, I am sharing this and inviting your feedback on if anyone has thoughts on who various people are.
Enjoy, and reach out if you have any queer-past items you don’t know what to do with — I probably want them!



So, let me know if you have any information about these images, especially the personal snaps (the movie stars are less interesting).
Thanks! ⚡️
























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