The Mystery of the 1957 Gay Wedding Photos

In the 1950s, a Philadelphia photo shop refused to return these pictures. 

Sixty years later, they've been found.

I love the discovery of lost photographs and despite this being for the saddest reasons censorship and what we would now call homophobia and yet here sixty years later we have the fascination of discovering the story . . . . . 

“What the researchers have shared so far on their site — OurOneStory.com— about the unknown grooms is that this collection of photographs was first printed circa 1957 at a neighborhood drugstore in Philadelphia. They capture what appears to be a same-sex commitment ceremony, including the exchange of rings in front of witnesses, an officiant leading the ceremony, the first kiss, dancing, opening of gifts, cutting the cake and more. The owner of the drugstore deemed these particular wedding photos to be inappropriate. He refused to return the photos to the grooms.Sixty years later, the photos were found. The originals are now kept safely between the ONE Archives at the USC Libraries in Los Angeles and at the Wilcox Archives in Philadelphia.”

Sourced from the excellent Advocate.com