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William A. Rhoads Nude Male Photographs
Coll2008-026
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Title: William A. Rhoads Nude Male
photographs
Dates: circa
1975-1981
Collection number: Coll2008-026
Creator:
Rhoads, William A.
Collection Size: 5 archive cartons
1.25 linear feet
Repository:
ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives.
Los Angeles, California 90007
Abstract: Nude photographs of male hitchhikers on Pacific
Coast Highway between Santa Monica and Santa Barbara taken by amateur
photographer William A. Rhoads, circa 1975-1981.
Languages: Languages represented in the collection:
English
The collection is open to researchers. There are no access
restrictions.
Publication of images in this collection is restricted until 2061.
William A. Rhoads Nude Male Photographs, Coll2008-026, ONE National Gay
and Lesbian Archives, Los Angeles, California.
Gift of Joseph Carrier,
June 2006.
Upon Rhoads' death, following instructions left to the executor of his
estate, all his photographs were given to Joseph Carrier, who donated the
collection to ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives in June 2006.
Collection processed by Michael P. Palmer,
June 3, 2008.
Processing this collection has been funded
by a generous grant from the National Historical Publications and Records
Commission.
William A. Rhoads earned a PhD in botany, and worked for defense
contractor EG&G (Egerton, Germeshausen, and Grier), Inc., studying the
effects of radiation on plants for the Atomic Energy Commission. He spent his
weekends in a small house he owned near Venice Beach, but lived weekdays in
Goleta, where EG&G's Santa Barbara Operations were based. He died of
congenital heart disease in the early 1980s.
Source: Letter from Joseph Carrier to Gregory L. Williams. August 3,
2006.
Scope and Content of Collection
The collection consists of nude photographs of males, and in one
instance of a male-female couple, most apparently picked up hitchhiking along
the Pacific Coast Highway on the northward journey from Santa Monica to Santa
Barbara. Approximately a third of the models are identified, and their
photographs dated; a list of these models is available with the collection, but
for privacy reasons they are identified in this finding aid only by initials.
The remaining photographs are not identified, and are not dated. An account by
Joseph Carrier of the circumstances under which the photographs were taken is
included with the collection. Between Rhoads' death and the acquisition of the
collection by ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives many of the prints and
virtually all the negatives in the original collection were damaged beyond
repair by high humidity; many of the surviving photographs are heavily
warped.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this
collection in the library's online public access catalog.
Gay erotic photography
Photographs
Photography of men
Photography of the nude
Rhoads, William A.