The Civil War Bawdy Houses of Washington, D.C.

The Provost Marshal of Washington DC published a list of 83 houses of prostitution, listing the addresses of each house, along with the name of the madam, the number of "girls," and the quality of the facility. The "Pink Book," published in 1997, contains a 24 by 36 inch map showing the location of each "house." 1997, Sergeant Kirkland's Press, 100p.

In addition, it reprints an 1895 Sporting Guide, issued by thirty-one madams who were welcoming the delegates to the 1895 annual convention of the Grand Army of the Republic. This was thirty years after the war, and five generations before the advent of Viagra, but the madams and their "hostesses" assumed that the visitors could rise to the occasion.

Midwest Book Review:
The Civil War Bawdy Houses of Washington, D. C. has to be one of the most unique, unusual, and yet historically accurate books ever written on the American Civil War experience. Thomas Lowry has done painstaking research on a most unusual subject. Yet this was a time when prostitution and "houses of ill repute" were to be found in virtually every substantial city in the east, and every cow-town in the west. The public and governmental attitudes of a century ago toward "working girls" and their patrons were dramatically different than what we see today. This novel historical treatise is enhanced with a map showing the location of more than sixty bordellos and an official U. S. Government ratings as to their quality! No American cultural history or Civil War studies collection can be considered complete without the inclusion of Thomas Lowry's serious study on The Civil War Bawdy Houses of Washington, D. C.

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