A couple months ago I posted a request on HISTARCH and ARCH-L for
references to brothel excavations, but never quite got around to posting
all the results until now. Thanks again to all those who kindly replied,
especially the folks from John Milner Associates....
Jeannie :)
====================================================
Jeannie Yang
http://www.wco.com/~genie
Anthropological Studies Center
Sonoma State University
Rohnert Park, CA 94928
http://www.sonoma.edu/projects/asc/
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From: Christine Flaherty <[log in to unmask]>
Hi,
The first thing that comes to mind is Donna Seifert's work in DC. There's
an article is Hist. Arch.: Within site of the White House: the
archaeology of working women, 1991 v. 25, p.82-108. There's also an
article in a book but I don't have the cit. to hand.
Looking forward to more on the subject...
Christine Flaherty
[log in to unmask]
From: Stanley Copp <[log in to unmask]>
My colleague, Dr. Imogene Lim, recently conducted excavations in a
portion of Vancouver, B.C.'s historic Chinatown. We ran a double
field school, the other site was historic Fort Langley (Hudson's Bay
Co - "my" site).
Imogene found some possible 'hooker' materials ... notably a boot
(for a Caucasian re: hooker) and yes, they are there on the insurance
maps too.
Her e-mail is: [log in to unmask] (Malaspina Univ. College)
in case she doesn't subscribe to this list.
Stan Copp
[log in to unmask]
[log in to unmask]
From: Julie D Abell <[log in to unmask]>
You'll probably hear this from a number of folks on the east coast, but
the main project that comes to mind is the Federal Triangle job that was
done in Washington D.C. by John Milner Associates during the late 1980s.
There have been a number of publications regarding this site, including
at least one in the Journal of Historical Archaeology. Key authors are
Charles Cheek and Donna Seifert. Good luck.
Julie Abell
[log in to unmask]
From: [log in to unmask] (Peter B. Mires)
Dear Jeannie,
Saw your post on HISTARCH re. brothels. I suggest that you get in touch
with a contract firm in Sparks, Nevada called Western Cultural Resource
Manangement (WCRM) and talk to Ed Stoner. His phone number is
(702)358-9003. A couple of years ago they conducted data recovery at
Reipetown (sp.?), Nevada, a rough-and-tumble mining town that had a
notorious red light district. I believe that Don Hardesty was also involved
in this work as a subcontractor to WCRM. His email address is
[log in to unmask] Although I have not seen the report, I think that one
of their major research foci was "brothel archaeology." Good luck...(hi to
Mike and Annmarie).
Regards, Peter
From: Jo Balicki <[log in to unmask]>
John Milner Associates Inc. did a data recovery in Washington, D. C. which
included several brothels. Some of the material is readily available in
Historical Archeology Vol 25, Number 4 "Within Sight of the White House: The
Archeology of Working Women" by Donna Seifert.
Jo Balicki
John Milner Associates
Alexandria Va
From: TAD BRITT <[log in to unmask]>
Garrow and Associates, Inc. Conducted data recovery excavations in
downtown Memphis, TN a few years ago and encountered the remains
of a brothel. Contact them for a copy of the report or citation and there
may have been a popular report prepared as well.
Contact:
Charlie McNutt
(901) 526-8008
or
Pat Garrow
(770) 270-1192
let me know if I can be of further assistance.
tad
From: [log in to unmask]
Jeannie,
You are probably familiar with Donna Seifert's work on the brothels of
Washington, DC (Historical Archaeology 25(4):82-108 and her paper for the SHA
meetings in Kingston which is pretty much the same as the HA article). A
little earlier than your study, but perhaps helpful.
We have also collected some historical information from a red light district
in downtown Charleston, SC which is summarized in Michael Trinkley and Debi
Hacker, 1996, The Other Side of Charleston: Archaeological Survey of the Saks
Fifth Avenue Location, Charleston, South Carolina. Research Series 45.
Chicora Foundation, Inc., pp.54, 62-64. Mostly historical information, so I'm
not sure it will be of much assistance, but you should be able to obtain the
publication through ILL (it has been sent to a number of lending libraries --
SC State Library, UNC-CH, U of Michigan, NY Public Library, etc.
Best wishes,
Michael Trinkley
Chicora Foundation, Inc.
PO Box 8664
Columbia, SC 29202
803/787-6910
Email: [log in to unmask]
From: [log in to unmask]
Ms. Yang:
John Milner Associates conducted excavations in Washington, D.C.'s red-light
district about five years ago. I expect you know about this work already.
However, we will be excavating another site this fall that we think was a
brothel, again in downtown Washington, D.C., so we are interested in knowing
about your work in LA. I'v seen some of the newspaper articles, but we'd
like to know how your findings compare with our DC data.
Donna J. Seifert
Senior Project Manager
John Milner Associates
From: "(Mike Polk)" <[log in to unmask]>
Steve Baker (of Centuries Research in Montrose, Colorado) wrote an article in
Southwestern Lore in the 1980s about Victorian archaeology much of which was
centered around excavations of a brothel in Ouray, Colorado. I can't lay my
hands on the reference, but Southwestern Lore only comes out two to four
times a year, I believe. Also, Alexy Simmons wrote an article on Red Light
Districts in Oregon that was somehow related to archaeological contexts. I
can't find that either, but I believe it was written up in Northwest
Anthropological Research Notes (out of the University of Idaho).
Mike Polk
Sagebrush Consultants, L.L.C.
Ogden, Utah
From: Pamela Cressey <[log in to unmask]>
I missed the original query, so I don't know if this is relevant or has
been mentioned, but John Milner Associates excavated the Federal Triangle
site in Washington, DC about 1990? I don't have the report, but much of
the material dated to the late 19th century when the neighborhood was
working class and consised of a mixture of ethnic groups, Irish, black,
etc. During the Civil War the immediate area was facetiously referred to as
Hooker's Division--after the Union Major General--because the populace
consisted largely of camp followers taking advantage of wartime prosperity.
As a result, a lot of the material recovered from the site was
originally discarded from the brothels there (and, some say, one
colloquial term for prostitutes was coined).
The Pennsylvania Avenue Development Corporation put out a video about
the excavation.
Tim Dennee
Alexandria Archaeology
From: "Kevin J. Gross" <[log in to unmask]>
Jeannie,
The Center for Archaeological Research, The University of Texas at San
Antonio, investigated two ca. 1904-13 brothels in San Antonio's Red
Light District. You can find the results in the following report:
Labadie, J.H.
1987 An Archaeological and Historical Assessment of the Vista Verde
South Project, San Antonio, Texas. Archaeological Survey Report, No.
156. Center for Archaeological Research, The University of Texas
at San Antonio.
If you are unable to locate the report, please contact me at the
following:
[log in to unmask]
or
CAR-UTSA
6900 N. Loop 1604 W.
San Antonio, Texas 78249-0658
or
210-458-4378
Hope this helps!
Kevin Gross
Research Associate
From: William Moss <[log in to unmask]>
We excavated a site dating 1820 to 1950 where, according to archival sources
(such as police reports), there were brothels from late XIXth to early XXth
Centuries. Several house lots were excavated, so there was a possibility of
occupation levels associated with this activity. No material culture was
definitely attributed to the functional class of, say, leisure activities.
This doesn't of course mean there were no archaeological traces, but rather
that none were identified during preliminary analysis. I'm at home now, so I
don't have the precise reference, but I can put it on the net tomorrow.
Coincidentally, the site is located on what is now our brand spanking new
convention center. And, just as coincidentally, the first ads on the
commercial interactive computer system in the convention centre were
for...brothels, both male and female!
William Moss
City Archaeologist
Division design et patrimoine
Ville de Quebec
C.P. 700, Haute-Ville
Quebec (Quebec)
Canada, G1R 4S9
tel: 418-691-6869
fax: 418-691-7853
email: [log in to unmask]
email: [log in to unmask]
From: [log in to unmask] (Ned Heite)
There was the work at Hooker's in Washington. I suspect, however, lots of
others that have been unwittingly dug by some of our more contract-oriented
colleagues, never to be interpreted.
_______
|___|__\__==
| _ | | --] Ned Heite, Camden, DE 19934 <DARWIN><
=(O)-----(O)= " "
From: Carl Steen <[log in to unmask]>
There was a most amusing article on pornographic fireplace tiles excavated at
"The Cheshire Cheese" a brothel in London in Post Medieval Arcahaeology in
the 70's. Presumably a full excavation report exists.
From: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Brothels
To: [log in to unmask]
Message-id: <[log in to unmask]>
Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT
You might want to also connect Rebecca Yamin at
John Milner's New York Lab (212.505.8243) - Tuesdays-Thursdays
(Other days at JMA's Philly office)
She is in the process of writing up a possible brothel assemblage from
NYC's Five Points district dating to the early 1840s.
claudia milne
From: [log in to unmask] (William Moss)
Jeannie Yang:
Here is the complete reference:
Dominique Lalande, .Recherches archeologiques sur le site de l'ilot O'Connell
a Quebec (CeEt-587., Quebec (Quebec) : Ville de Quebec, Centre de
developpement economique et urbain, Division design et patrimoine, 1996, 250
pages. ISBN 2-920860-52-6.
William Moss
From: Iain Stuart <[log in to unmask]>
Dear Jeannie Young
I just thought I'd contact you directly re the brothels in LA. When I was in
Victoria at the Victoria Archaeological Survey we organised an excavation at a
place called "Little Lon" in the heart of Melbournes red light district. There
is some brief discussion of the material in a book on Melborune's history that
I sent to Adrian earlier this year.
Anyway the curious thing was just how invisible brothels were. True we did
find a pit with 1021 champagne corks in it but apart from that nothing much
that said "Brothel". Thinking about it, it seemed to me that apart from
"noise" obscuring a brothels artefact signature (there were others such a
Chinese and poor workers living in the area an presumably they would
contribute artefacts) brothels might not have a characteristic artefact
signature. The aim of brothels is to mask the mercenary nature of the
transaction and to create a form of normal sexual relations that allows the
client to think that they are having sex because the prostitute "loves" them.
The Brothel reproduced in some form, a domestic situation and therefore might
have deposited domestic material culture into the archaeological record. The
signature of the brothel would be the nature of this domestic material perhaps
skewed when viewed as a whole towards sleeping and eating domestic goods. This
might be a way of figuring out which deposits were from brothels rather than
hope to find whips and chains!
The most interesting thing to emerge from Little Lon was how many people
repsonded to the media stories about the site by stressing that it may have
been a red light district and a Chinese community but there were many poor
working class people who lived there trying to make a respectable life amit
the squalor.
The site was also the stomping ground of two religious orders one Anglican The
mission to the Streets and Poor and the other the Catholic Josephites whose
founder Mother Mary McKillop is going to be Australian first saint. In the
press reports the sub-editor cut the text so it looked like Mary McKillop
worked fr the Anglicans and i got all the phone calls!!!
Anyway I'd be happy to find out what your thoughts are on all this if you have
the time.
Yours
Iain Stuart
University of Sydney
(P.S. Sorry about the lack of a spell check some idiot has removed it!)
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