Sex Workers in the City: Presentation and Interaction in 19th-century Boston’s Urban Landscape

Summary

Historical and archaeological analysis of sex work in the 19th-century tends to focus on what happens inside brothels. What happens when sex workers venture out into the city in the course of their daily lives? In this paper I examine the historical and archaeological evidence recovered from the mid-19th century 27-29 Endicott Street brothel located in the North End neighborhood of Boston, MA, and consider where in the urban landscape the residents of the brothel—Madame, servant, sex worker and child—would have traveled on a routine basis, and the options they had in dressing and adorning themselves in public. Using Symbolic Interactionism to understand how personal appearance, social behavior, and the landscape work together to ensure successful social interaction, I consider how the tactical choices made by these women contributed to the social construction of the meanings and boundaries of urban landscapes.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Streetwalkers, Fallen Doves, and Houses of Ill Fame: A Historical and Archaeological Discussion on Prostitution   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2016

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 441