Civil War prostitutes.

[Robert Gray]

Sex And The Civil War - A Rare Photo Of Civil War Prostitutes

This is thought to be a candid shot of prostitutes, infected with venereal disease and quarantined in Military Hospital No. 19 in Nashville by authorities during the war.

According to the 1860 U.S. Census, Nashville was home to 198 white prostitutes and nine referred to as "mulatto." The city's red-light district was a two-block area known as "Smoky Row"

By 1862 however, the number of "public women" in Nashville had increased to nearly 1,500 and they were always busy. Union troops a long way from home handed their meager paychecks over to brothel keepers and street walkers with abandon.

Syphilis and gonorrhea, infections spread through sexual contact, were almost as dangerous to Civil War soldiers as combat. At least 8.2 percent of Union troops would be infected with one or the other before war's end — nearly half the battle-injury rate of 17.5 percent, even without accounting for those who contracted a disease and didn't know it or didn't mention it — and the treatments (most involved mercury), when they worked, could sideline a man for weeks.

The Civil War Parlor
Image: National Archives

 

[UCVRelics]

I have my doubts about the image as there are men in the compound, 3 of the women I see in the lower part of the photo aint mulatto. None of the other women look like hookers to me. They appear to be wash women. Plus there is wash hanging everywhere. I'm going to stick my neck out and say laundry detail at the hospital.

 

[John Hartwell]

Somewhere on CWT we've discussed this photo in the past -- can't find it now. Many of us expressed doubt as to its caption.

 

[WJC]

This is thought to be a candid shot of prostitutes,

Do you have any further information- say a link to the source? I am curious how some unnamed person decided this photo involved prostitutes....

 

[nitrofd]

Do you have any further information- say a link to the source? I am curious how some unnamed person decided this photo involved prostitutes....

I believe it is from thhe bbook Sex and The Civil War,as they had a chaapter by itself on prostitution.

 

[Patrick H]

My reaction echoes what we have already read. There is lots of laundry hanging on lines. I think we are seeing laundry women. Gosh...they had a hard, repetitive job, didn't they? I won't totally rule out the possibility of a few of them also freelancing as prostitutes, but that's really a stretch. And even if a few of them were "soiled doves", who am I to judge them? I like these ladies.

 

[WJC]

I believe it is from thhe bbook Sex and The Civil War,as they had a chaapter by itself on prostitution.

Thanks for your response.
Typically, National Archives gives more information.
To me it seems a stretch: it could just as easily be factory workers on break or hospital workers doing laundry. Nothing in the photo suggests prostitutes to me.

 

[nitrofd]

Thanks for your response.
Typically, National Archives gives more information.
To me it seems a stretch: it could just as easily be factory workers on break or hospital workers doing laundry. Nothing in the photo suggests prostitutes to me.

If i remember,but don't hold me to it,i believe this was the red light district in Washington.

 

[Eleanor Rose]

This picture is identified as, "Hospital for prostitutes on 2nd Avenue, Nashville, 1864, Tennessee State Library and Archives" on the site http://blogs.wnpt.org/mediaupdate/2017/02/06/civil-war-era-prostitution/

And as, "A rare photo of Civil War prostitutes. Although originally mislabeled as "laundry women," based on his knowledge of Civil War Nashville, Jim Hoobler, Curator of the State Capitol, has identified this photo as a candid shot of prostitutes, infected with venereal disease and quarantined in a military hospital in Nashville by authorities during the war. via TSLA" on the site https://thelateunpleasantness.wordp...ty-shades-of-blue-sex-and-the-single-soldier/

This may actually be what the OP stated.

 

[infomanpa]

This picture is identified as, "Hospital for prostitutes on 2nd Avenue, Nashville, 1864, Tennessee State Library and Archives" on the site http://blogs.wnpt.org/mediaupdate/2017/02/06/civil-war-era-prostitution/

And as, "A rare photo of Civil War prostitutes. Although originally mislabeled as "laundry women," based on his knowledge of Civil War Nashville, Jim Hoobler, Curator of the State Capitol, has identified this photo as a candid shot of prostitutes, infected with venereal disease and quarantined in a military hospital in Nashville by authorities during the war. via TSLA" on the site https://thelateunpleasantness.wordp...ty-shades-of-blue-sex-and-the-single-soldier/

This may actually be what the OP stated.

Thanks for the documentation.

 

[mofederal]

They look like pros to me. The men in the picture might be in the same boat as the women. Either way they would know exactly who the women are or were. I doubt that laundresses would attract that kind of attention. I would say also that the those in charge might have trouble getting other people to do their laundry. VD still had a lot of mysteries then.

 

[John Hartwell]

Note also that the men while in the same picture are not "with" the women, but a distinctly separate group.

 

[nitrofd]

Thanks for the documentation.

Not fake news

 

[Mike Serpa]

If this is a laundry facility, why not hang the laundry in parallel rows? I think it would be more efficient and waste less space.

 

[Digging Fool]

Interesting!

 

[Schwallanscher]

If this is a laundry facility, why not hang the laundry in parallel rows? I think it would be more efficient and waste less space.

more poles, perhaps?

... and more holes to dig?

 

[Mike Serpa]

more poles, perhaps?

... and more holes to dig?

Possibly. Maybe we will never know for sure what their profession is but how many women does it take to wash a couple dozen sheets? @mofederal said it in post #11, " I doubt that laundresses would attract that kind of attention."

Meanwhile, here are two screen grabs from "Back Stage" (1919) with Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle.
Laundress or strumpet?

http://www.listal.com/list/my-roscoe-arbuckle-top-15

 

[Schwallanscher]

Possibly. Maybe we will never know for sure what their profession is but how many women does it take to wash a couple dozen sheets? @mofederal said it in post #11, " I doubt that laundresses would attract that kind of attention."

Meanwhile, here are two screen grabs from "Back Stage" (1919) with Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle.
Laundress or strumpet?
View attachment 195724



View attachment 195725
http://www.listal.com/list/my-roscoe-arbuckle-top-15

none of them does any work - they are kinda posing. most of them gather in a spot where they can be seen. if somebody had put them 'out of business' they probably wouldn't do that. whereever there is a chance to get a glimpse there is at least one guy staring at the ladies. to stare at women should have been considered indecent. so there must be a reason that kinda 'allows' that sort of behaviour.

if they are [insert any euphism you don't feel annoyed by] i'd rather doubt that this is a hospital, to me that looks kinda like a disguised marketplace. you don't want that kind of business in plain sight, don't you

the veneral diseases might have been added (came and comes with the territory, though) to warn innocent girls to not pursue that kind of a carear. i think someone tampered with the evidence for the greater good of mankind.

makes more sense than anything else to me, but that's just my two (euro) cents

 

[Mike Serpa]

none of them does any work - they are kinda posing. most of them gather in a spot where they can be seen. if somebody had put them 'out of business' they probably wouldn't do that. whereever there is a chance to get a glimpse there is at least one guy staring at the ladies. to stare at women should have been considered indecent. so there must be a reason that kinda 'allows' that sort of behaviour.

if they are [insert any euphism you don't feel annoyed by] i'd rather doubt that this is a hospital, to me that looks kinda like a disguised marketplace. you don't want that kind of business in plain sight, don't you

the veneral diseases might have been added (came and comes with the territory, though) to warn innocent girls to not pursue that kind of a carear. i think someone tampered with the evidence for the greater good of mankind.

makes more sense than anything else to me, but that's just my two (euro) cents

Are you saying they are prostitutes?

 

[Schwallanscher]

Are you saying they are prostitutes?

not necessarily - but as an assumption it makes more sense than any other so far offered. if they are wash women the behaviour of these 'gentlemen' is intollerable - we are talking the 1860s and four of the guys even stare at them from the first floor (of the white building). also none of them has a hand even near the 'laundry' which looks indeed more like some sort of a blind screen (word?) than laundry. i also doubt that you need nine (or ten) wash women for this amount of laundry.

so for the time being ...