Browse Items (103 total)

Photograph of 1970 Gay Alliance Rally to protest police harassment.

Photograph of 1970 Gay Alliance Rally to protest police harassment.

Advertisement for the Sunset Cafe in Bronzeville

Ad appearing in December 1863 Chicago Tribune for Kelly, Leon and Donniker's Minstrels

Map of the South Side Levee

"Among the most popular Dill Pickle Club events were its frequent masquerade balls. These events appealed to a broad range of partygoers, allowing wealthy residents of the Gold Coast to mingle in relative anonymity with working people and artists.…

A speakeasy, little bohemia that attracted "free-thinking" people and was the site of a lot of prostitution and female impersonation

An image of Garrick Theatre (May 1958, Chicago Tribune) where Vesta Tilley, male impersonator, performed male and female roles in the play "Algy" in October 1903

A layout of Haymarket Theatre, a place where Vesta Tilley, male impersonator, was voted best dressed man in Chicago (1903) but also performed here in March 1898.

an image of male impersonator Hetty King

Female impersonator appearances (1882)

Opened in 1969 and still in service, this one of the oldest drag bars in the city (cited in a publication in 1975 for having "female impersonators")

1980's- known as the oldest Latina drag bar, known to be open in 1981