Jeffrey Gent’s interest in vintage photographs of same-sex couples started when his grandfather showed him a cabinet card from the 1890s, telling him, “I just realized the other day that you look so much like my Great Uncle Clarence. It’s funny, he was a confirmed bachelor his whole life, just like you.”

“That photo made me wonder if this bachelor uncle not only looked like me, but was also gay,” Gent told The Huffington Post. “If so, how sad that Uncle Clarence’s family knew nothing about his life, and that he wasn’t able to speak openly about it.”

Gent created a website, Homo History, compiling vintage photographs of gay and lesbian couples throughout history.

“Since most of the men and women in these photos are unknown, it’s hard to know for sure if they were a gay couple or just good friends,” Gent said of the collection. “For every photo that I may have mistakenly identified as gay, thousands more were burned or torn into pieces to keep a family secret . . . I hope that by sharing these photos of vintage gay and lesbian couples, we can correct the social injustice that they endured by seeing them in a brand new light.”