Secret stories

After Vance Muse stumbled onto a number of turn-of-the-century photo albums from Bailey Island, Maine, he had two questions: Who are these men and why are they holding hands?

by Tony Giampetruzzi

PHOTO FINISH: Vance Muse's research into the Bailey Island photo albums finally took him to Philadelphia, where he had a breakthrough.

Two years ago, journalist Vance Muse discovered a secret history. In the pages of some old photo albums from a secondhand store were images of a mysterious group of young, wealthy socialites on holiday in Maine. The pictures were from the early 1900s, but their subjects were not identified. The albums would merely have been curious artifacts if not for one thing: these turn-of-the-century vacationers were quite obviously gay.

The photos, labeled from 1908 to 1911, were in surprisingly good condition, says Muse, but they revealed few clues to the Maine summer folk's identities -- no names, just a teasing license plate here and boat landing there. Perhaps it was the lack of identification that helped pique Muse's curiosity, but the photo albums and their subjects soon consumed his imagination and sent him in search of the stories behind the images. The lives of the people in the pictures became part of his own life. After years of sleuthing, Muse turned his discoveries into a book called We Were Here, which will be published by Random House in 2002.

What Muse ultimately discovered is that the pictures portray friends on a series of summer holidays, an extended "family" of gay, lesbian, and straight people who had come to Maine from Philadelphia. "You could instantly see that the affectionate pairings were inclusive," says Muse. "You see men and women, men and men, and women and women. I could tell from what was happening in the pictures that these people were gay. There was nothing incredibly overt, but the fact is, you either see it or you don't."

The photos, some of which Muse recently displayed at a lecture at the University of Southern Maine, certainly reveal what appear to be gays and lesbians in varying degrees of frivolity. Men holding hands, embracing, in drag. Such overt displays of affection are what intrigued Muse most about the images and the people in them.

The subjects of the photos were incredibly bold for their day to have allowed themselves to be photographed in that way. The photos were taken with a Kodak Brownie camera, Muse explains. Such cameras were much like today's disposables. The photos were snapped, the entire camera was mailed to Rochester, New York, for developing, and the camera was returned ready for another use. There was no telling who could've seen the pictures.

Over the past two years, Muse has been able to determine the identity of these long-deceased people. A photo of an old boat landing led him to identify the location as Bailey Island. Another photo depicted a mansion in Philadelphia; it took Muse months to find the house, but when he did, it led to most of the information about the Maine visitors. Finally, Bailey Island date lines on letters found at a Philadelphia historical society were also helpful.

Through the photos and research, Muse was able to piece together facts about the subjects' lives. One vacationer, Ben Luckey (Muse's favorite), appeared to have a different boyfriend each summer. "Ben Luckey actually turned out to be a dressmaker at Lord & Taylor in New York City," says Muse. Although Luckey's death in 1916 was labeled a suicide, his family thought otherwise. "He was the ultimate victim of discrimination and intolerance," says Muse. "He was found dead, two shotgun wounds in the head, an apparent victim of hate in New York City." Muse discovered that Luckey's relatives, who knew he was gay, pursued the case for years, but to no avail.

Another character in the photos was George Smith, who was a flyboy during World War I. He often came to Bailey's with his boyfriend. It was Smith who owned the mysterious mansion near Philadelphia.

One couple, Amy Blanchard and Ida Waugh, were together for 55 years, Muse learned. Amy and Ida turned out to be authors of children's books and had homes on Bailey Island and in Paris and Philadelphia. Altogether, they published 19 books, among them Faggots and Flames: A Campfire Girl's Romance, a novel for Girl Scouts. "They typified the so-called Boston marriage," says Muse, using a term for the romantic, although not always sexual, relationships between single women during the Victorian and post-Victorian era.

According to Muse, the albums ended in 1911, but the stories continue. He says he's not surprised to have found that wealthy families such as those pictured came to Maine to escape the puritanical nature of cities like Philadelphia during the early part of the last century. Muse says little has changed since then -- people still come to Maine to disappear and reimagine themselves. He counts himself among them.

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