# @fineartsbuilding on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/DZvLPxvD7U4
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/66992793-fineartsbuilding-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/0d61364207.jpg
- **Posted:** 2026-06-18T18:22:08.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** The Fine Arts Building (@fineartsbuilding) — https://gondola.cc/fineartsbuilding

## Caption

We’re continuing to celebrate #Pride month by highlighting lesbian icon Margaret Anderson! 🧡🤍🩷

Anderson’s time in the Fine Arts Building started in 1908 when she worked as a clerk for Browne Bookstore, then as an editor for The Dial. In 1914, she started The Little Review out of room 917. This avant-garde literary magazine was instrumental in bringing modernism to the U.S. and published many controversial works.

Anderson was an out lesbian and possibly the first woman to advocate for gay rights in print. In the March 1915 edition of The Little Review, Anderson criticized a speech recently given by Edith Lees Ellis, cited as the first lecture defending homosexuality. Ellis, also a lesbian, argued that homosexuality led to naturally heightened creativity and that repressing queer existence strips the world of artistry. 

Anderson responded that Ellis didn’t go far enough. Tolerance for the sake of art wasn’t enough. “With us love is just as punishable as murder or robbery,” Anderson wrote. “Mrs. Ellis…knows boys and girls, men and women, tortured or crucified every day for their love—because it is not expressed according to conventional morality.”

In 1916, Anderson met Jane Heap at FAB. Heap was an artist and intellectual in the Chicago Arts and Crafts movement, and the two soon became lovers. Anderson also convinced Heap to join The Little Review as co-editor, shaping the vision and success of the journal with its subversive and radical content. 

Together, they published James Joyce’s Ulysses in serials, four years before it was published in Europe. For this, Anderson and Heap were censured and convicted with obscenity.

Anderson and Heap were bold and unapologetic in a world that wanted to silence them, continuing to argue for queer rights through their own work and by publishing the work of others.

Photos 1 and 2 courtesy of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Photo 2 features a page from Anderson’s photo album, recounting herself and her long-term partners. Photo 3 is of Anderson and Heap.

#chicagohistory #fineartsbuildingchicago #chicagopride

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## Credits

| Name | Username | Profile | Role |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| The Fine Arts Building | @fineartsbuilding | https://gondola.cc/fineartsbuilding | Creative Director |

## Tags

fineartsbuildingchicago, pride, chicagopride, chicagohistory

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