Extensive visual evidence of intimate , potentially homosexual, relationships are provided by the affectionate portraits of male friends, made by both amateur and professional photographers, from mid-1840s onwards. In the era before sexual behavior had been rigorously codified into binary categories, young men were allowed to express their friendship through embraces and other gestures and actions that now would be interpreted as exclusively gay.

Most of the photographs of pairs and groups of male friends probably were intended to commemorate friendships without any sexual overtones. Nevertheless, in some instances, explicit gestures, passionate embraces, and even revealing inscriptions forcefully evoke relationships that were celebrated sexually.

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By the middle of the second decade of the twentieth century, the conception of homosexuality as a distinct identity category, with implications of mental and physical illness, caused the genre of male friendship photographs to disappear. The twentieth century conception of homosexuality can not adequately explain the fluid relationships eloquently revealed in countless nineteenth century images of male friends.

Although sparse in images documenting the gay community, pre-Stonewall gay male photography blurs the boundaries between art, erotica, and social history.

Although his personal sexual orientation is uncertain, American painter, photographer, and teacher Thomas Eakins is solidly aligned in the history of art with a homophile sensibility, as expressed particularly in his celebration of the male form.

One of the most important American painters and printmakers of the second half of the nineteenth century, Winslow Homer created a distinctly American, modern classical style in which he celebrated male and female friendships.

The evidence of the homosexuality of celebrated portrait artist John Singer Sargent resides largely in his work, especially his genre paintings and male nudes.

Celebrating an ideal of manly love in both its spiritual and physical aspects, Walt Whitman has exerted a profound and enduring influence on gay literature.