The Best Little Whorehouse in Philly…in 1849

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Stumbled across something awesome recently: an 1849 guide to dens of ill repute in Philadelphia. It formed the basis of most of our podcast this past week (how much would you need to pay us to travel back in time and sleep with the toothless Ms. Hamilton?) You may also want to give it a read. The intro is great: snarky and completely disingenuous. The reviews are amazing: “Beware of this house, stranger, as you would the sting of a viper.”

I also found this interesting, and we discussed it in the podcast:

In the nineteenth century, a woman who owned property, made high wages, had sex outside of marriage, performed or received oral sex, used birth control, consorted with men of other races, danced, drank, or walked alone in public, wore makeup, perfume, or stylish clothes — and was not ashamed — was probably a whore.

Shoutout to Ben of Imaginary Goats for pointing this guidebook out to me. If anyone else has any weird or quirky historical stuff that you think would make good podcast fodder, please don’t hesitate to send it my way.

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