Leather History Preservation Foundation

To preserve the practice and tradition of passing on the collective experiences and wisdom of the Leather community through the sharing of oral histories.

To encourage the education and inclusion of the next generations of Leatherfolk to continue the practice and tradition of this sharing of oral history.

Preserve our traditions.
Share our experiences.
Encourage inclusion.
Educate ourselves.
Empower one another.
Promote acceptance.

To educate and empower those who identify as belonging to the Leather community, those who are new or curious about the Leather community, and to encourage tolerance and acceptance across a broad range of alternative adult lifestyle choices.

How will we work to achieve those goals?

By presenting an annual conference that will bring experienced Leathermen and Leatherwomen together to share their experiences – their trials, triumphs, and tragedies, their feelings and opinions, to tell their personal stories - with those who are new to or curious about, the Leather lifestyle we have chosen to live, with Leatherfolk and other practitioners of alternative lifestyles that wish to learn more about living a Leather lifestyle.

By recording these oral histories for posterity.

By making items of significant personal historical value, books, photographs, and recordings available for conference participants to experience with all their senses, to make these personal histories more immediate and real.

We present a three day conference with a group of historians who have agreed to share their histories with the members of the Foundation. We record those history sessions and, with permission and documentation from the historians, make those recordings available to the Leather Archives & Museum, the Carter-Johnson Leather Library, and researchers who may need access to the information.

The conference provides an intimate opportunity for members of the Leather subculture from across the spectrum of racial identifications, sexual orientations, gender identifications, and smaller subgroups within the Leather community, to network, to socialize, to connect on a more personal level. We encourage acceptance and celebration for the diversity of our community.

The event Leather History Preservation Weekend (LHPW) started in High Point, North Carolina, the first being held in 2017. The Leather History Preservation Foundation is a young, and very small organization. But community support for the organization and our event has been strong. LHPW received the Pantheon of Leather's Small Event of the Year Award for our second event in High Point in 2018.

The event location was changed to Atlanta, Georgia for 2019, and our original dates had to be changed to accommodate the change in venue. But even with the move, and some drop in attendance from 2018's numbers, we were able to control costs, lower event prices, and still come out with some starting funds for 2020's event. The Foundation has already secured a contract for LHPW 2020, and we hope to progress to a long term contract in the future so we can begin true long term planning for growth.