Title:

Velvet Rhodes papers, 1970-1990

Creator/Contributor:

Rhodes, Velvet, creator, creator

Materials documenting the career of Patricia Laura Adams (aka Velvet Rhodes) between approximately 1970 and 1990. The bulk of the collection contains correspondence, organizational documents such as mission statements, membership forms, financials, and newspaper clippings for the Society for the Promulgation and Encouragement of Amazon Conduct and Attitude (SPEACA) founded by sex worker and "Amazon supreme," Velvet Rhodes. Based in Orange County, CA SPEACA was founded on the concept "of an upward direction in the female condition" and a belief in the principle that women are not equal to men, but are instead superior to men. SPEACA also had a chapter based in Washington D.C. and included a sister organization called Female Ascendancy Through Enlightenment which held workshops and consciousness raising sessions for its members. Most of the correspondence to SPEACA is from men interested in becoming members of the organization and describing their willingness and desire to both serve and be dominated by Velvet or other "Amazons'' in the organization. The personal files of Rhodes contain correspondence, ephemera, and magazines. There are a few letters from 1972 written to Patricia Adams while incarcerated for unknown reasons at HM Prison Holloway, London, England, but the bulk of correspondence is from men requesting wrestling matches with Rhodes, who was both interested and active in female wrestling and female bodybuilding. There are also fliers, clippings and magazines about female wrestlers and wrestling. The collection includes other magazines on kink, including topics on fetishism, domination and submission, leather culture and transvestitism. Magazines and publications include: Genesis, Femme Muscleania (photocopies), Women's Physique, Lady Athlete, Battling Girls, Fighting Femmes newsletter, Katerwauls newsletter, Sherema, Dominatrix Domain, Leatherman's Workbook, Variations, Chic, An Introduction to the Subject of Transvestism or Femmephilia, The Transvestite, the Magazine for and About Transvestism, Millionaire Magazine, Lament: Greater Los Angeles Area Mensa Commentary. Also contains photo reproductions of numerous Skye Publications including Smother Inc., The Wrestlers, Stocking Girls, The Feminizers, Au-Dessous, Decollete (9), Sitting on the Male, GSJ, Decollete (5), The View Above, One Look Only, The Governess. Personal files also contain writings by Rhodes including a book review and articles; employment history including resumes, pay stubs, contracts, and a list of television, radio, film and theater appearances; financial materials, photographs, and legal documents listing Patricia L. Adams as defendant and her father Robert Adams as plaintiff, although the documents are dated a decade after the death of her father. A small amount of photographs, including three rolls of photographs adhered together depicting Rhodes in various poses, and two illustrations, one of Rhodes, done by Tom Schneider.

Date:

1970 (issued)

Subject:

n-us-ca

Fetishism

Feminism

Sadomasochism

Transsexuals

Sex industry -- California -- Orange County

Feminism

Fetishism

Sadomasochism

Sex industry

Transsexuals

California -- Orange County

Rhodes, Velvet -- Archives

COLLECTION STORED OFF-SITE. Advance notice required for use.

PARTIALLY RESTRICTED COLLECTION. Box 1 (letters to Velvet Rhodes) sealed until 2042.

Purchase from Johnson Rare Books and Archives; 2022.

Velvet Rhodes papers, BANC MSS 2022/178, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.

Type:

Archives.

print

2.0 (1 2

English

Origin:

California

COLLECTION STORED OFF-SITE. Advance notice required for use.

PARTIALLY RESTRICTED COLLECTION. Box 1 (letters to Velvet Rhodes) sealed until 2042.