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The Leather History Timeline
Further Reading
In-Page Table of Contents
| Timeline Table of Contents |
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Introduction
The origin of this edition of the timeline, the version control conventions adopted, and a call for contributions including corrections, updates, and additions. |
| 5000 BCE to 1969 |
| 1970 to 1984 |
| 1985 to 1999 |
| 2000 to 2014 |
| 2015 and later |
| Other Versions of the LHT and Similar Timelines |
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Further Reading
Additional resources about the history and mythology of BDSM and Leather. |
Further Reading on Leather and BDSM History
- The Leather History Timeline by Tony DeBlase and others
- The Leather History Timeline for Texas
- Marginalia on the Old Guard, Leather Traditions, and BDSM History by Ambrosio
- Other Versions of the LHT and Similar Timelines
- History of Our Leather-S/M-Fetish Subculture and Communities: Towards a Bibliography by slave david stein
- Tool Box Bar, 1963 by Justin Hall: A two page history in comic format.
- American Leather Goes Mainstream: Anger, Arnett and Life Magazine by Chris M.
- Life Looks at Leather (1964)
- About Larry Townsend
- About Drummer Magazine
- About Jack Fritscher, PhD
- About Jeanne C. Barney
- ChatGPT and the Truth About Jeanne C. Barney by Ambrosio
- About Guy Baldwin, MS by Ambrosio
- About Tom of Finland
- About Tony DeBlase and the Leather Pride Flag
- History of Our Leather-S/M-Fetish Subculture and Communities: Towards a Bibliography compiled by slave david stein
- Greenery Press, Janet Hardey, and Jay Wiseman
- About the POWERotics Foundation and Hans Meijer
- Some Notes on William Moulton Marston, Wonder Woman, and Loving D/s by Ambrosio
- Dr. Fedric Wertham and the "Seduction of the Innocent" by Ambrosio
- A Brief History of Leatherbars (Featuring the DC Eagle) by Chris M.
- A Brief History of the Black Rose of Washington DC: Part One by Chris M.
- Gifts of the Circle: A Chronicle of the Hook Pull performed by Fakir Musafar and Cleo Duboise at Black Rose 2002 by Chris M.
- Delta Diary 1996
- The Leather Archives and Museum: The Chicago institution that preserves our leather history.
- The Leather Journal: The Leather Journal was founded in May, 1987. The Leather community was hungry for news magazine that covered clubs, organizations and events.
- The Leather Research Reference Shelf
The Mythology of the "Old Guard"
If people start telling stories not as they were, but as they would like them to be, that procedure can be used by anybody for any purpose. So I think that we need to be consistent in the truth.
- Robert Bryan, Stonewall participant
- The Mythology of the "Old Guard"
- Old Guard? If You say so. By Joseph W. Bean
- The Old Guard History, Origins and Traditions By Guy Baldwin, M.S. (from The Ties That Bind)
- Old Guard, New Guard By Gayle Rubin
- The Myth of the Old Guard By Jack Rinella
- Multiple Tops: Master, Mistress and Daddy Makes Three By Master L.J.E. An Old Guard view of 'Net Generation polyamoury.
- Marginalia on the Old Guard, Leather Traditions, and BDSM History by Ambrosio contains "Leather's Military Heritage," "Six Contrasting Definitions of the 'Old Guard,'" "Napoleon Bonaparte's Imperial Guard," and "What was the First Use of the Term Old Guard in a Leather Context?"
- Rover's column in the December 1973 issue of California Scene Magazine: Earliest documented use of the phrase "old guard" in a Gay Biker --- and possibily Leather --- context (depending on whether you think Gay Biker qualifies as Leather.)
- Why Old Guard? by David Masterson
If we are demanding that our history be respected, then we have to respect it ourselves. You have to apply the same criteria to our history that it be worthwhile, that it be accurate, that it be well-researched. We should recognize our warts as well as our flowers, as it were.
- David Carter, Historian