ABSTRACT
Ogden Salmon's scrapbooks, made from 1931 to 1949, are artifacts of his identity formation as a gay man. Made when Salmon was 16 to 34 years old, the scrapbooks include “high” and “low” visual culture to reflect upon being gay in a homophobic culture. The earliest scrapbooks consist of drawings and writings about a fictional opera company of made-up, romance-prone divas who engaged in socially inappropriate behaviors (public nudity, stealing fiancés, and murder). In 1938, he created scrapbooks with third-person journal entries in magazine-style prose that appear alongside clippings about celebrities, dance performances, movies, plays, and the news. He takes a particular interest in journalism that recognizes homosexuality (e.g., the Leopold and Loeb trial), and cultural productions that indulge and validate a gay male gaze (e.g., photographs of shirtless male actors). In 1942, during military service, he created a scrapbook consisting of clipped physique photographs, evocative of homosexual masculinism. Finally, in scrapbooks he created between 1943 and 1949, he created photographic albums depicting him and his friends as athletic. Other first-hand accounts of gay life survive, but are rare. While scholars have discovered some aspects of gay culture that Salmon's scrapbooks document, the scrapbooks offer dynamic, creative accounts.
