SEE: First Exhibit Exploring BK's Queer History Opens This Week

BROOKLYN HEIGHTS, BROOKLYN — The history of the city's LGBTQ community is no secret in certain neighborhoods like Harlem or Lower Manhattan, but in other boroughs, like Brooklyn, it can be sort of a mystery — that is, until now.

The Brooklyn Historical Society will unveil the first exhibit ever to focus on the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer history of the Brooklyn this week, specifically in the haven along the borough's coastlines. "On the (Queer) Waterfront" will explore the LGBTQ communities that thrived in that area in the 1800s through World War II.

"Since the 19th century, there has been a significant – if often overlooked – LGBTQ presence in the borough, much of it clustered along the waterfront, where industrial jobs, cheap housing, and urban anonymity life provided unique opportunities for queer people to explore their own desires and discover one another," the historical society said in an event posting.

The exhibit will kick off Tuesday with an opening reception at the historical society's location on Pierrepont Street. The reception, held from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., will also include a joint exhibition and the launch of a book by one of the exhibit's co-curators, Hugh Ryan, called "When Brooklyn Was Queer."

The book includes new, original research into the borough's LGBTQ history completed by Ryan, who was a Martin Duberman Fellow at the New York Public Library in 2015/2016. Ryan and Avram Finklestein co-curated the "On the (Queer) Waterfront" exhibition.

The exhibit specifically examines five types of work that proved specifically welcoming of or interesting to LGBTQ people: artist, entertainer, sex worker, sailor, and factory workers release said. It will feature evocative photographs, ephemera, and artifacts and a reading and discussion area for visitors to explore relevant books, including Ryan's.

"The run of On the (Queer) Waterfront coincides with the celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the Stonewall riots, and New York City’s World Pride Month in June," the historical society added.

Here are programs included in the exhibit:

• On Monday, April 1, Ryan will discuss the intersection of LGBTQ identity and creativity with historian Daniel Hurewitz and author Sherill Tippins in a program titled, The Queer Creative Impulse: Artistic Expression and Gender Identity.

• On, Monday, April 15, George Chauncey, DeWitt Clinton Professor of History at Columbia University and author of the trailblazing book Gay New York: Gender, Urban Culture, and the Making of the Gay Male World, 1890-1940, will present a lecture examining NYC’s post-war gay culture and politics.

• In addition, Brooklyn Historical Society’s podcast series, Flatbush + Main will focus on this history in an episode to be released in March, following the opening of the exhibition.

The exhibit will stay open at BHS until August 4, 2019. BHS is open to the public Wednesday to Sunday from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. Suggested admission is $10 for adults, $6 for seniors and teachers, and free for members and students of all ages.