Len & Cub: A Queer History // Book Launch at the Beaverbrook Art Gallery

Join Goose Lane Editions, the Beaverbrook Art Gallery, and the Queer Heritage Initiative of New Brunswick for the official book launch of Len & Cub: A Queer History by Dusty Green and Meredith J. Batt.

Saturday, April 9, 2022
3:00 PM – 5:00 PM
Beaverbrook Art Gallery
703 Queen St, Fredericton, NB

Admission: Free!

Speakers at this event include Dusty Green and Meredith J. Batt, John Leroux, Susanne Alexander, and The Honourable Brenda L. Murphy. Copies of the book will be available for purchase.

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About the exhibition: Leonard “Len” Keith (1891-1950) and Joseph “Cub” Coates (1899-1965) were two young men living in the rural village of Havelock, New Brunswick who formed a relationship during the early 20th century. While keeping their keeping their sexual identities and attraction for each other hidden, they privately captured their relationship via photographs – one of the oldest known surviving photographic records of a same-sex couple in the Maritimes. These remarkable archival images are as important socially and historically as it is unique in the photographic canon of eastern Canada.

Len was an amateur photographer and automobile enthusiast who went on to own a local garage and pool hall after serving in the First World War. Cub was also a veteran, farmer, butcher, contractor, and lover of horses. Their time together is documented by Len’s photos, which show that the two shared a mutual love of the outdoors, animals, and adventure. Photographs of Len and Cub on hunting and canoe trips with arms around each other’s shoulders or in bed together make clear the affection they held for each other. The images also underscore the era’s stylistic and technical change from formal studio portraiture to more candid, animated, and “real” photos, as personal portable cameras with timers became readily available during the early 20th century.

Although Len was outed and forced to leave Havelock in 1931, the story of Len and Cub is one of love and friendship that challenges our contemporary ideas about sexuality in early 20th century Canada.

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We respectfully acknowledge that Goose Lane Editions is located within the traditional unceded territory of the Wolastoqiyik and Mi’kmaq Peoples of New Brunswick.

More information can be found on the Beaverbrook Art Gallery website: https://beaverbrookartgallery.ticketing.veevartapp.com/tickets/view/list?firstevent=len-and-cub-a-queer-history-book-launch

Please contact the Beaverbrook Art Gallery with any questions concerning the venue and accessibility. Front Desk: (506) 458-2028

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