Jul 22
Crew's Quarters Guest House's Instagram Offers a Window into the Queer Past
Robert Nesti READ TIME: 5 MIN.
If you ever were interested in what queer life was like in the decades before Stonewall, then a visit to the Crew's Quarters Boarding House Instagram page is a must. As curated by Stuart Jackson, the Provincetown guest house's owner, the IG is a visual treat that shows the rich legacy of queer life through personal snapshots and commercial erotica of its time. And textured throughout are photos of Jackson's guest house (more on that at this link), a place that consciously evoke what it might have been like to visit Provincetown decades ago.
For Jackson, curating the photos offers him the opportunity to offer a visual corollary to what he's done to Crew's Quarters Boarding House, which opened in the early 1960s as The Ranch in a Commercial Street building that had previously been a doctor's office and an art gallery. Back then it was also a theme-based residency, one that evoked the very masculine image of the Cowboy, so popular in television and the movies in the late 1950s. But over the years, the Ranch devolved into something akin to a sauna; by the time Jackson bought it in the early days of the pandemic, it was something of a curiosity. But instead of doing a fresh redo that played into the bourgie sensibility that defines today's Provincetown, Jackson embraced the past, carefully renovating with the sense that the queer past is meant to be celebrated – a sensibility that is beautifully expressed in the residency's Instagram.
"Well, I'm motivated and excited by all things old anyway," Jackson explains in a phone interview recently. "And this is content I've always loved, so making that imagery come alive on the Instagram page is a joy. I also see the IG as an extension of the brand. I do sometimes get criticized that I should show more of imagery of the hotel itself, and I do try to mix the authentic photos with those of the guest house. I do see the IG as a way of promoting the importance of the brand in a digital environment."
The synergy between the archival photos and those of the Crew's Quarters Boarding House is transparent to the point that it is difficult to not to think of them all as vintage photography. And that synergy is reflected in how Jackson carefully restyled the interiors, carefully chose artifacts from the pre-Stonewall era. Walking into the public spaces and the rooms is like passing through a time warp. "Anyone that stays here will know is that that candid imagery of guys together are used around throughout the space with framed imagery in the bathrooms, guest rooms and public spaces," Jackson says. "Paying homage to a group of our community from the past is something that I tried to celebrate within the inn, and so the Instagram just feels Like a really great way to extend that."
Jackson's intent was to create the "bad boy sailor tavern at the end of the jetty" (as he calls it), and he has happily succeeded.
But what may surprise many of the photos is how bold and openly queer their subjects are in a time when queer lives were marginalized and targeted as indecent. And while most of the photos aren't taken in Provincetown, they express the freedom that the resort offered queer men as a place where they could be themselves, if only briefly, for a week or two.
Jackson gathers the photos from a number of different sources. "I have lots of photos myself. I have lots of books. So sometimes I take imagery from that I've been collecting from vintage male magazine for decades." These magazines, often hidden in the back of magazine racks, featured models in posing straps that was shocking at the time, but today would appear tame, even funny and a bit camp.
He also searches the Internet, but, he adds, "with a certain eye. The photos have to fit into a historical context, say from 1890 to 1960 timeframe as much as possible. So I'm very selective and and I try to do a diverse representation in the imagery that I present. So it's not just a bunch of white guys. It's actually interesting trying to source imagery that is multi-cultural. But I think it's really important as I'm showing this historical representation of queer identity or male beauty that I show it in as many you know, lenses as I can."
The casualness of the subjects in the photos is often striking, which Jackson attributes to the control that the individuals taking the photos had over them. There was back then a sense of privacy that is gone today, thanks to social media.
"I think people felt free and safe in a lot of the images, because there was a bit more control over what was happening with the image, and it's probably a loved one or a trusted one that was taking the photo. So it doesn't really surprise me that they look so relaxed and at ease. I think in today's age, you know where you can snap something and it can be passed around in a matter of seconds, for thousands of people to see, it's a different thing. Of course there was some danger involved – the subjects and the photographers had to deal with punitive challenges, even imprisonment. But it is really refreshing and for us to see that our elders, our forefathers in the community, were happy and had fulfilling lives as well, because there's not an avenue really to share that story unless you're a nerd like me and like to go into it in detail. It's not something that's offered up to us in our academic environment."
Jackson also sees the IG as not only promoting his guest house, but as a way of sharing the hidden queer past to those who may not be able to come to Provincetown and stay at Crew's Quarters Boarding House. "I hear from people that are interested in the material. So the IG is another access point into our rich queer past. Of course, we want people to come to Provincetown to stay at Crew's Quarters Boarding House and get the full, immersive experience; but we also want them to enjoy on the insights on the Instagram site. Remembering our past is what's important to us.
Robert Nesti can be reached at [email protected].
