Prostitution Collection, 1834-1975
General International Standard for Archival Description
Sophia Smith Collection Smith CollegeNorthampton, MA
Finding aid encoded using Perl scripts and edited in XMetal 2.0. Encoded by Laura Cutter. 2003-06-12
Encoded Archival Description
Encoded Archival Description (EAD) Version 2002
collection
Prostitution Collection
Creation of Prostitution Collection
Time of Creation of Prostitution Collection
Scope and Contents of the Collection First Annual Report of the Female Benevolent Society of the City of New York, 1834 The Prostitution Collection consists almost entirely of printed materials such as newspaper clippings, articles, and pamphlets dating from 1834 to 1978. Most of the material pertains to the United States and England, though a few items focus on Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. The nineteenth century material in this collection is limited, including the first annual report of the Female Benevolent Society of New York (1834); pamphlets on the "The Legislation of Female Slavery in England" by Annie Besant (1876) and "The Social Evil in Philadelphia" by Reverend Frank Goodchild (1896). Also included are two books on trafficking of young girls written in 1899 and 1910. The bulk of the collection dates from 1900 to 1978 and includes articles, handbills, newspaper clippings, pamphlets, reports, speeches, trial transcripts, a Smith College course syllabus and unpublished paper, and an audiotape of The Dick Cavett Show on the legalization of prostitution (1972). This material documents the changing relationships among prostitutes, the police, social and legal reformers, and the public over the course of this period. The impacts of the sexual revolution and the women's movement on attitudes about prostitution is particularly well-documented by the large number of newspaper clippings and articles from the 1960s and 1970s contained in the collection. This material sheds light on the lives and experiences of prostitutes.
The Periodicals Collection includes several issues of Coyote Howls, "dedicated to exposing and eliminating current laws against prostitution."
Prostitution--History--Sources
lcsh
Prostitution--Laws and legislation
Butler, Josephine Elizabeth Grey, 1828-1906
lcnaf
Besant, Annie Wood, 1847-1933
Sophia Smith Collection
General: articles and clippings
Butler, Josephine
Countries
General
England
United States
Female Benevolent Society
Female Sexual Slavery and Economic Exploitation: Making Local and Global Connections (1984)
Prostitution in Victorian England by Kathleen O'Connell, n.d.
Smith College: student initiated course, 1973
Articles, 1910-55, n.d.
Pamphlets, books, miscellaneous
United States vs. Corinne Smith; and United States vs. Demetria Moses
False Modesty by E. B. Lowry, 1914
Dick Cavett Show on the legalization of prostitution: audiotape, November 3, 1972
Books on shelf
Fighting the Traffic in Young Girls by Ernest A. Bell (1910) [abridged version]
Traffic in Girls and the Work of Rescue Missions by Charlton Edholm (1899)
Sterile Sun by Caroline Slade (1936)
She Wasn't Ashamed: The Autobiography of an Indian Prostitute 1942