Vintage Lesbian

butch-in-progress:

Treasures from Mercedes de Acosta’s Bequest - Portraits

[K] If you’re following this blog, you are already away of the many reasons Mercedes de Acosta is worth remembering/the many ladies laid which earned her a bright spot in lesbian herstory.

If not, a quick reminder by celebrity photographer (and friend of Greta Garbo) Cecil Beaton:

“She was one of the most rebellious & brazen of Lesbians”.

(Another gay male fan would be Truman Capote, who assumed her to be the joker in his “International Daisy Chain” card game - think “6 degrees of separation”.)

Still, so far, we haven’t had the photographic evidence to proof her awesomeness and swagger. This is about to change, as it finally occurred to me to have a look the the Rosenbach Museum and Library’s online collection, to which Mercedes de Acosta had sold all her pictures and letters in 1960 (Good things come to those who wait… until it finally dawns on them.). Among them the much-hyped letters from Greta Garbo, which the museum was by de Acosta’s request not allowed to publish until 10 years after Garbo’s death. (Even though they weren’t by far as racy as some had hoped them to be.)

Focusing not on Garbo for a change, we proudly present portraits of one of my favorite vintage butches of all time, Mercedes de Acosta herself, as well as some of her celebrity friends such as Alfred Stieglitz and Getrude Stein.

All pictures courtesy of the Rosenbach Museum and Libary.