Leather Archives & Museum
Serving the Fetish World

 

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The Museum is open to visitors & researchers on:

LA&MThursday from 12pm - 8pm
LA&MFriday from 12pm - 8pm
LA&MSaturday from 12pm - 5pm
LA&MSunday from 12pm - 5pm
Last admission to the exhibits is 30 minutes before closing time.
We are closed all major US holidays.
Access to the Archival Collection requires an appointment in advance.

Administrative Office hours:

LA&MMonday CLOSED
LA&MTuesday from 9am - 8pm
LA&MWednesday from 9am - 4pm
LA&MThursday from 9am - 8pm
LA&MFriday from 9am - 8pm
LA&MSaturday from 9am - 5pm
LA&MSunday from 10am - 5pm

Administrative Staff:

LA&MExecutive Director Rick Storer
LA&MDirector of Operations Jeffrey Storer
LA&MDirector of Development Dave Clements

Mailing Address:

6418 North Greenview Ave.
Chicago, IL 60626

Tax ID (FEIN): 36-3841874

Mission Statement

"The compilation, preservation and maintenance of leather lifestyle and related lifestyles [including but not limited to the Gay and Lesbian communities], history, archives and memorabilia for historical, educational and research purposes."

Policies of the LA&M

bulletCollection Policy
bulletCopyright Policy
bulletDonor Privacy Policy

History of the LA&M

In August 1991, the LA&M was incorporated in the state of Illinois. From that date until May 1993, the Leather Archives was, in effect, an idea struggling to take form. In 1993, 1994 and 1995, the LA&M existed as a growing collection and appeared in public only as exhibits at International Mr. Leather in Chicago (plus a couple of abortive attempts to appear on the road). In fact, most members of the Leather Communities of the world - even in North America - were still unaware of the LA&M. In 1996, a storefront home for the LA&M was opened in Chicago. Much larger exhibits were mounted in this space, but the collection outgrew the space very rapidly.

In July 1997, Joseph W. Bean arrived to take on the job of Executive Director of the LA&M. Within three months, he had started a series of changing exhibits and proposed to the Board of Directors a capital campaign to raise funds to buy a building. The capital campaign was announced in December of 1997, and met with immediate success.

The LA&M moved into its permanent home in late 1999. The 10,000 sq. foot building provided for exhibits and the effective storage of the ever-growing collection of leather history.  In January of 2002, Joseph Bean retired from the LA&M, and then volunteer Rick Storer was hired to continue the work started by Bean and the entire leather community.  In August of 2004, the leather community made a $225,000 balloon payment to pay off the mortgage of the LA&M. Also during 2004, the exhibit space was expanded from one 2,000 sq. foot gallery to a full building tour of eight galleries.


Here are just a few statistics about the LA&M

bulletAverage daily unique visitors to our website: 334
bulletAverage percentage of visitors who add us to their favorites: 44%
bulletNumber of Google links: 1,841
bulletMost popular search word that brings people to our website: "Leather" with 628 hits per month
bulletMost popular search phrase that brings people to our website: "Drummer Magazine" with 54 hits per month
bulletMost popular referring domains (other than search engines, non leather) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leather_subculture with 77 hits per month
bulletMost popular referring domains (other than search engines, community related) http://www.gayleathermen.com/lthrp26.html with 76 hits per month
bulletTop viewed pages: http://leatherarchives.org/collections/collecti.htm with 1,658 page views followed by http://leatherarchives.org/exhibits/exhibits.htm with 1,367 page views
bulletTop viewed pages from a single country: United States with 303,678 hits per month
bulletTop viewed pages from a single country: European Union with 7,445 hits per month
bulletAverage number of yearly visitors to the LA&M: 1,200
bulletCurrent paid members of the LA&M: 220
bulletAverage number of volunteer hours worked at the LA&M: 250
bulletAverage number of items donated to the collections of the LA&M per year: 4,500
bulletAverage number of phone/email research requests per year: 124
bulletAverage number of meetings or events held at the LA&M per year: 53
bulletCurrent number of books in the Teri Rose Memorial Library: 5,000
bulletCurrent number of Magazines in the Teri Rose Memorial Library: 11,000

All material and images on this web page are copyright the Leather Archives and Museum.  They may not be copied, used or reproduced without the express written permission of the Leather Archives & Museum

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