Wigwam yearbook, 1948

Papers document the professional and personal lives of Aubrey Hancock and William A. Fontaine, Jr. The collection includes business records, personal and miscellaneous correspondence, documentation of their properties, guest books, and assorted ephemera on Charleston, social, and local LGBTQ life. The material documents to some extent, their lives before they met, but focuses mostly on their lives together. While some of the correspondence is personal from family members and friends, including Alicia Rhett, much is from guests who stayed at their bed-and-breakfast, Villa de la Fontaine, located at 138 Wentworth Street in Charleston, South Carolina. Of particular interest are the images (approximately 1950s-1960s) of gay life in the lowcountry, including Stereo Easymount slides of Hancock and Fontaine in drag, and images of their life together including images of their homes and businesses in Walterboro, South Carolina, and Charleston, South Carolina. Clippings and other ephemeral materials (1980s-2000s) document a variety of LGBTQ and Charleston topics, with some obituaries of gay men. A portion of the papers include the papers of Gladys Fletcher, stenographer to author and biographer Dawn Langley Hall. Materials include wedding images of Hall and John Paul Simmons and assorted materials relating to Fletcher and the Fletcher family. Also included are materials relating to Wilbur Fontaine of Walterboro, South Carolina, Bill Fontaine’s brother.