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Our Mission & Legacy
A Collective History of Those Who
Chose to Live & Love Differently
The Carter-Johnson Library & Collection is a 501(c)(3) organization chartered to bring the history of leather, kink, fetish, and alternative sexuality communities to the people who made it — and to the generations who will inherit it.
As the only library of its kind, our mission is to create an interactive relationship with the stories from the past and the present. We believe history must be held, read, smelled, and known — not merely stored.
“The Library collection includes thousands of leather, fetish, S/m, kink and alternate sexuality books, magazines, posters, art, newspapers, ephemera and memorabilia dating back to the 1700’s.”
The Collection
Thousands of Objects.
Centuries of History.
From the 1700s to today, the CJLC holds a remarkable archive of materials documenting the lives, loves, and cultures of communities who have always existed — but have not always been preserved.
"I call now through time and space to all who have brought us to this place.
Leather folx from ages past please hear me as I call.
Come down and bless our efforts here, please join us one and all."
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— The Invocation of the Carter-Johnson Library & Collection
Get in Touch
Questions about the collection, visits, donations, or the organization?
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