About the Project
In summer of 2019, I was an intern at the Lesbian Herstory Archives (LHA) in my home-borough of Brooklyn, NY. During my time as an intern, I was introduced to the story of Angela Calomiris: the former lesbian FBI informant and owner of Angel’s Landing. I was told that her papers lived at LHA, and that a book had been written about her only a few years prior.
My questions about Calomiris eventually culminated into an undergraduate history honors thesis entitled, Mining the Masquerade: Angela Calomiris, Queerness, and the Cold War (2021), which examined the life of Calomiris and sought to make sense of her archive’s many absences. After spending so long researching her life, I wanted to make her story accessible beyond my one-hundred page thesis project. This capstone responds to that hope of making my findings more accessible to a broad audience.
This exhibition seeks to tell the story of Angela Calomiris grounded in her historical context. The site is organized chronologically by section, beginning with her birth in NYC in 1916 up to her death in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, in 1995. Each square on the main page summarizes an important part of Calomiris’ life based on her papers at the Lesbian Herstory Archives. To jump to the next section, click the left arrow at the bottom of the page.
I hope that my work will serve as foundational for future projects— by myself and other historians— and prompt questions about the many absences in 20th century lesbian history. Happy exploring!
Ruby Lowery, May 2021
Who Was Angela Calomiris?
Calomiris was born in 1916 to Greek immigrant parents. She grew up on the Lower East Side of Manhattan with many siblings and little money. From an early age, she developed an interest in photography and dreamed of making a career out of it.
In 1941 she got involved in the New York Photo League, a leftist organization that sought to advocate for social justice through photography. Later, in 1942 Calomiris was recruited as an informant by the FBI, tasked with reporting Communist activity based out of the League. She was an informant for seven years (1942-1949), responsible for submitting names and pictures of alleged Communists to the FBI.
In 1949, Angela Calomiris was the only woman to testify in the Smith Act Trials. Her testimony resulted in the indictment of four Communist leaders. After the trial, Calomiris published a ghostwritten autobiography, Red Masquerade (1950), describing her life as an informant.
After the trial, Calomiris opened the B&B, Angel’s Landing, in Provincetown, MA. In 1995, she died in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.