"Dear Friends is the first book to demonstrate how common it was for nineteenth-century American men to commemorate intimate friendships with a visit to the local photographer; indeed, a look back today at these old portraits of anonymous men suggests how very affectionate those friendships could be.". "Reproducing more than one hundred never-before-published vintage photographs dating from shortly after the introduction of photography in the United States to the end of World War I, this groundbreaking book focuses attention on the evidence of a kind of physical intimacy between men that challenges the conventional view of the Victorian era as more inhibited than our own.". "David Deitcher's text combines historical research, social observation, pictorial analysis, and personal reflection to explore the nature of same-sex affection between men during that period and the meaning of its ambiguous photographic legacy for people today."--BOOK JACKET.