It almost sounds like a joke: a braille Playboy. Although the magazine is arguably most famous for its photography, it also publishes serious literature, journalism, and interviews. In the 1970’s, when the Library of Congress began translating magazines into braille, Playboy quickly became one of its most popular offerings. The braille edition contained no descriptions of Playboy’s photos, but it still featured enough explicit romantic advice and off-color humor to earn the ire and censorship efforts of a handful of conservative congressmen, leading to a civil rights lawsuit on behalf of its vision impaired readers. All this fascinating history is here in the studio with us today, at a time when, poetically, the internet and new technologies are in the process of rendering both adult magazines and braille itself obsolete.
