Leather Archives & Museum

The Leather Archives & Museum (LA&M) is a community archives, library, and museum located in the Rogers Park neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois. Founded by Chuck Renslow and Tony DeBlase in 1991, its mission is making “leather, kink, BDSM, and fetish accessible through research, preservation, education and community engagement." Renslow and DeBlase founded the museum in response to the AIDS crisis, during which the leather and fetish communities' history and belongings were frequently lost or intentionally suppressed and discarded.

The LA&M is a leading conservator of queer erotic art. Its permanent collection features some of the most iconic LGBTQ artists of the twentieth century, including most artwork by Bill Schmeling and many works by Dom Orejudos.

The museum is open to patrons 18 years of age and over. It is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization and a member of the Reciprocal Organization of Associated Museums (ROAM). Research assistance is available upon request.

In 1991, Dom Orejudos, Chuck Renslow's partner of 40 years, died from AIDS-related complications. When Orejudos was alive, Renslow had begun selling off some of his art to pay for medical treatment, but upon his death, Renslow was determined to preserve Orejudos's art and legacy. Renslow was unable to find a museum willing to preserve Orejudos's entire body of work; although multiple museums expressed interest in his art, they wished to pick and choose specific artworks, whereas Renslow wished to keep the collection intact.

After consulting his friend Tony DeBlase, Renslow set about creating a new museum to preserve Orejudos's art and the legacy of the leather community. In Renslow's words, "we were in the thick of the AIDS epidemic and with each death, families and friends were unknowingly tossing our history into dumpsters. That there was a safe place to conserve that history simply made more sense." (According to former LA&M president Jon Krongaard, some families of AIDS victims intentionally erased their leather and fetish legacies because they found it "sick or perverse.")

The LA&M was incorporated in the State of Illinois in 1991. It held a ribbon cutting ceremony and its first public gallery show on November 4, 1995. Its first storefront was at 5013 N Clark Street, adjacent to Man’s Country bathhouse. As envisioned, the LA&M became a sanctuary for leather and fetish history and art; the scale of donated art and artifacts quickly overwhelmed the capacity of the Clark Street storefront.

Members of the leather and fetish communities played a pivotal role in establishing the museum. In addition to donating much of the collection, they provided crucial financial support. As the museum outgrew its storefront, Renslow and DeBlase identified a former synagogue on Greenview Ave ideal to house the growing collection. They could afford only $3,000 of the $60,000 down payment required to buy the Greenview Ave property, so they appealed to International Mr. Leather attendees, who raised $58,000 in donations in a single night. In 1999, the LA&M moved into the Greenview Ave building, in which it remains to this day. Over the next five years, the community raised the funds necessary to pay off the mortgage.

DeBlase served as Vice President of the Board of Directors of the LA&M from 1992 until 2000. In May 2006, the LA&M's executive director Rick Storer participated in a panel discussion entitled "Censorship & Sexually Explicit Materials" at the 2006 LGBTQ Archives, Libraries, Museums and Special Collections (ALMS) Conference.