The Hidden History of Early Denver's Sex Workers

Thoughts of the Wild West illicit imagery of cowboys, miners, railroad workers, land speculators; jobs often held by men. But in the early days of Denver women were also working — businesswomen, called madams, ran parlor houses and brothels that served the growing city, and many women were employed as sex workers at these Lower Downtown establishments. Host Bree Davies sat down last year with History Colorado’s Assistant Curator of Serials, Ann Sneesby-Koch, to dig into the nuanced, complicated, and fascinating world of early sex work in late 1800s Denver.

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