MAPACA

Mid-Atlantic Popular &
American Culture Association

After the construction of the Erie Canal in 1825, New York became a bustling commercial center. With a large number of young men pouring into Gotham looking for their share of urban opportunity, the demand for commercial sex grew, and brothels emerged across New York. According to brothel guidebooks like The Gentleman’s Companion: New York City in 1870, the luxurious interiors of high-end brothels were decorated with elements that included “Rosewood furniture, immense mirrors, [and] Parisian figures” to make wealthy clientele feel at home. I argue that these brothel parlors were highly classed and gendered spaces that reflect the commercial practices employed in New York in the nineteenth century. Much as the elite public parlors in more commonplace spaces like dry goods stores were meant to convince patrons that the goods they purchased were of the highest quality, these fancy brothel parlors were used to assure clients that the sexual services would be (in an era of widespread sexually-transmitted infections) as “clean” as the interiors. Moreover, brothels reached their clientele by using the methods of advertising that other commercial businesses like A.T. Stewart’s Dry Good Palace and Matthew Brady’s daguerreotype studio employed, including commercial parlors and printed materials. In an era of burgeoning window displays, brothels employed the use of plate glass to exhibit the beauty of the sex workers inside of the house, sometimes even openly showcasing the “lady boarders” engaged in sexual acts. Just as enticing objects were marketed for the insatiable commodity culture across New York, so, too, were these brothel madams taking note of these new methods of commercialization and employing them to sell sex.