Dear Friends

American Photographs of Men, 1840–1918

by David Deitcher

Dear Friends is the first book to demonstrate how common it was for 19th-century American men to commemorate intimate friendships with a visit to the local photographer. Reproducing more than 100 never-before-published vintage photographs, this groundbreaking book provides evidence of a kind of physical intimacy between men that challenges the conventional view of the Victorian era. David Deitcher's provocative text combines historical research, social observation, and pictorial analysis to explore the nature of same-sex affection between men during the period.

New York, Harry N. Abrams Inc., 2001

ISBN: 978-0810992306

“Dear Friends is certainly one of the most interesting and provocative studies of American photography to have appeared in years. Deitcher refuses to read these poignant images EITHER as clear-cut evidence of gay relationships OR as . . . merely the standard poses of comradeship of the period. Instead, he investigates the unexplored territory that lies between these two poles—a history of social relations, personal contact, and literary friendship.” —Linda Nochlin

“David Deitcher’s Dear Friends is an invaluable and deeply affecting act of recuperation, an eye-opening demonstration of the change over time in the nature of friendship and its acceptable public representation. Deitcher’s text adds immeasurably to our understanding of the photographs. In supple prose, wise with ambiguity, he has proved a sophisticated analysis of a previously little-understood aspect of the history of male-male relationships.” — Martin Duberman