Browse Items (1845 total)

View of guests attending the Beaux Arts Ball at the Ambassador West Hotel, 1300 North State Parkway, Chicago, 1958. Guests in attendance included donor James C. Darby and members of Chicago's gay community.

View of guests attending the Beaux Arts Ball at the Ambassador West Hotel, 1300 North State Parkway, Chicago, 1958. Guests in attendance included donor James C. Darby and members of Chicago's gay community.

View of guests attending the Beaux Arts Ball at the Ambassador West Hotel, 1300 North State Parkway, Chicago, 1958. Guests in attendance included donor James C. Darby and members of Chicago's gay community.

View of guests attending the Beaux Arts Ball at the Ambassador West Hotel, 1300 North State Parkway, Chicago, 1958. Guests in attendance included donor James C. Darby and members of Chicago's gay community.

View of guests attending the Beaux Arts Ball at the Ambassador West Hotel, 1300 North State Parkway, Chicago, 1958. Guests in attendance included donor James C. Darby and members of Chicago's gay community.

View of guests attending the Beaux Arts Ball at the Ambassador West Hotel, 1300 North State Parkway, Chicago, 1958. Guests in attendance included donor James C. Darby and members of Chicago's gay community.

View of guests attending the Beaux Arts Ball at the Ambassador West Hotel, 1300 North State Parkway, Chicago, 1958. Guests in attendance included donor James C. Darby and members of Chicago's gay community.

View of guests attending the Beaux Arts Ball at the Ambassador West Hotel, 1300 North State Parkway, Chicago, 1958. Guests in attendance included donor James C. Darby and members of Chicago's gay community.

View of guests attending the Beaux Arts Ball at the Ambassador West Hotel, 1300 North State Parkway, Chicago, 1958. Guests in attendance included donor James C. Darby and members of Chicago's gay community.

View of guests attending the Beaux Arts Ball at the Ambassador West Hotel, 1300 North State Parkway, Chicago, 1958. Guests in attendance included donor James C. Darby and members of Chicago's gay community.

View of guests attending the Beaux Arts Ball at the Ambassador West Hotel, 1300 North State Parkway, Chicago, 1958. Guests in attendance included donor James C. Darby and members of Chicago's gay community.

View of guests attending the Beaux Arts Ball at the Ambassador West Hotel, 1300 North State Parkway, Chicago, 1958. Guests in attendance included donor James C. Darby and members of Chicago's gay community.

View of guests attending the Beaux Arts Ball at the Ambassador West Hotel, 1300 North State Parkway, Chicago, 1958. Guests in attendance included donor James C. Darby and members of Chicago's gay community.

View of guests attending the Beaux Arts Ball at the Ambassador West Hotel, 1300 North State Parkway, Chicago, 1958. Guests in attendance included donor James C. Darby and members of Chicago's gay community.

View of guests attending the Beaux Arts Ball at the Ambassador West Hotel, 1300 North State Parkway, Chicago, 1958. Guests in attendance included donor James C. Darby and members of Chicago's gay community.

View of guests attending the Beaux Arts Ball at the Ambassador West Hotel, 1300 North State Parkway, Chicago, 1958. Guests in attendance included donor James C. Darby and members of Chicago's gay community.

View of guests attending the Beaux Arts Ball at the Ambassador West Hotel, 1300 North State Parkway, Chicago, 1958. Guests in attendance included donor James C. Darby and members of Chicago's gay community.

View of guests attending the Beaux Arts Ball at the Ambassador West Hotel, 1300 North State Parkway, Chicago, 1958. Guests in attendance included donor James C. Darby and members of Chicago's gay community.

View of guests attending the Beaux Arts Ball at the Ambassador West Hotel, 1300 North State Parkway, Chicago, 1958. Guests in attendance included donor James C. Darby and members of Chicago's gay community.

View of guests attending the Beaux Arts Ball at the Ambassador West Hotel, 1300 North State Parkway, Chicago, 1958. Guests in attendance included donor James C. Darby and members of Chicago's gay community.

View of the Jewel Box Revue, a traveling drag review held at Robert's Show Lounge, 6622 South Park Way (now King Drive), Chicago. Guests in attendance included donor James C. Darby and members of Chicago's gay community.

Opened in 1969 and still in service, this one of the oldest drag bars in the city (cited in a publication in 1975 for having "female impersonators")

Female impersonator appearances (1882)

an image of male impersonator Hetty King

A layout of Haymarket Theatre, a place where Vesta Tilley, male impersonator, was voted best dressed man in Chicago (1903) but also performed here in March 1898.

An image of Garrick Theatre (May 1958, Chicago Tribune) where Vesta Tilley, male impersonator, performed male and female roles in the play "Algy" in October 1903

A speakeasy, little bohemia that attracted "free-thinking" people and was the site of a lot of prostitution and female impersonation