Wanton Women of Montana
In the 1890s, prostitution and red-light district brothels were common across the Big Sky State. In this unknown Montana sporting house, two of the women wear the formal, socially accepted corseted dress of women of the Victorian era, but the bartender and the five women on the right model “Mother Hubbard” dresses—worn without corsets—that working girls wore for ease of use while entertaining their customers. To learn more about prostitutes in the West, turn to page 26 to read “Don’t Bet Against a Sporting Girl” by Jan MacKell Collins.
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