Love, Bulldaggers, and the Birth of Lesbian Research, 1920s-1930s

In this episode of Our Dyke Histories, we continue to follow the astonishing life of Eve Adams into exile — the butch, Jewish, immigrant anarchist who opened Eve’s Hangout, a tea room in 1920s Greenwich Village that became one of the earliest proto–lesbian bars in the United States. Drawing on Jonathan Ned Katz’s groundbreaking research, Jack Jen Gieseking, Katz, and Julie Enszer trace Eve’s friendships with Anias Nin and Henry Miller; her bold self-published book Lesbian Love (about many of her exes, so delightfully gay); and the policewoman who entrapped her, triggering a sensational raid, trial, and her deportation. We track Eve from New York to Chicago, LA, and back, and finally Paris, where she and her partner Hella Olstein evaded Nazis for years during World War II before being murdered at Auschwitz. And yet the episode insists: Eve was not just a victim. She was an agent, a flirt, a hunk, a radical democrat, a community-builder — someone who lived with astonishing boldness. Through speakeasies, slumming cultures, rent parties, tea rooms, and censorship battles, this episode unearths how Eve Adams helped shape queer public life long before lesbian bars existed — and why her story still electrifies us a century later. ** Join Our Community Want to be part of our community? We'd love to have you. 😏 Come comment, connect, and get your gayme on! • Newsletter to your inbox: Jack's Queer Geographies newsletter (https://queergeographies.ghost.io/) with detailed takes on each episode, & more about lezbiqueertrans spaces across time • Instagram for more dyke visuals and stories @ourdykehistories (  / ourdykehistories  ) • Read and follow our co-producer and collaborator, Sinister Wisdom (https://www.sinisterwisdom.org/podcast) • Email us questions and comments at ourdykehistories@gmail.com (mailto:ourdykehistories@gmail.com) ** Credits Producer, Editor, Host, & Creative Director: Jack Gieseking Co-Producer: Julie Enszer & Sinister Wisdom Co-Producer & Co-Editor: Cade Waldo Assistant Editor: Mel Whitesell Social Media: Audrey Wilkinson Interns: Michaela Hayes and Sophie McClain Consulting Producer: Rachel Fagen Music: Our theme song: "Like Honey" by Kit Orion https://www.kitorion.com/ CC-BY-NC-ND 2025. Write to us at ourdykehistories@gmail.com (mailto:ourdykehistories@gmail.com) for permission to use any of our content.