Yearly symposium of the Dutch History Students. This year (2023) the symposium was held in Amsterdam. The topic was TABOO. My title and introduction text was: The Pleasure Business Taboos Resources on entrepreneurship and Dutch Prostitution, 1850-1911. Prostitution is a much-debated topic, surrounded by taboos. Should it be legalized or criminalized? If legalized, where to locate it in a municipality? If criminalized, should the focus be on the people that sell sex or those who buy it? During the Nineteenth-Century, similar discussions appeared. With changes in government policy, economy and socio-cultural developments the Dutch legal status on prostitution was replaced with a brothel ban in 1911. How did entrepreneurs within the pleasure business of prostitution respond to these changes? My presentation will focus on historical resources that give insight into this transformation and the taboos surrounding it.

1. GRADUATE SCHOOL OF HUMANITIES - GKG
Wilma van den Brink, MA
PhD Student
The Pleasure
Business Taboos
Resources on entrepreneurship
and Dutch Prostitution, 1850-1911

2. 2
Why this topic?

3. 3
My thesis (2008)

4. 4
My blogs

5. Cornelia Winkelaar-Hermans (1825 – 1911)
My article on brothels in Haarlem (2013)

6. Development of prostitution business in the
Netherlands between 1850-1911 under the
influence of government policy, economic
and socio-cultural changes.
PhD research

7. Why 1850-1911?

8. Relevance today

9. Historiography

10. “A person who wants to earn an income
by running or maintaining a business with
a combination of labour, capital and
knowledge.”
Economic capital
Human capital
Social capital
Entrepreneur
Entrepreneurs prostitution business

11. Local regulations
1850 1911
1900
1880
Moral panic Brothel ban
Timeline history prostitution Netherlands

12. Local regulations
1850 1911
1900
1880
Moral panic Brothel ban
1815
1815
1815
1815
Ordinances

13. Local regulations
1850 1911
1900
1880
Moral panic Brothel ban
Publication of 40 ordinances (IISG)
Municipal council reports
Local newspapers
Police archives
Ordinances:
Finding ordinances

14. Local regulations
1850 1911
1900
1880
Moral panic Brothel ban
Breda – Leiden – Maastricht –
Rotterdam – Zwolle
Prostitution registers
Prostitution registers

15. Local regulations
1850 1911
1900
1880
Moral panic Brothel ban
Population registers
Decisions mayor municipality
Police archives
Court records
Patent registers
Where to find owners prostitution businesses

16. Local regulations
1850 1911
1900
1880
Moral panic Brothel ban
Abolutionism UK & newspapers

17. Local regulations
1850 1911
1900
1880
Moral panic Brothel ban
1. White slavery in Brussels, 1879-1881

18. Local regulations
1850 1911
1900
1880
Moral panic Brothel ban
“One of
the most
successful
pieces of
scandal
journalism”
Judith R. Walkowitz
2. Maiden Tribute, 1885

19. Local regulations
1850 1911
1900
1880
Moral panic Brothel ban
Men of the
aristocracy
versus
innocent
working class
girls
3. Jack the Ripper, 1888

20. Local regulations
1850 1911
1900
1880
Moral panic Brothel ban
Dutch press

21. Local regulations
1850 1911
1900
1880
Moral panic Brothel ban
Middernachtzending, 1888-1848
Nederlandsche Vrouwenbond ter Verhooging van het Zedelijk Bewustzijn, 1884-1948
Nederlandsche Vereeniging tegen de Prostitutie, 1879-1948
Vereeniging tot behoud van Boetvaardige gevallen Vrouwen, 1853-1899
Abolutionism movements Netherlands

22. Local regulations
1850 1911
1900
1880
Moral panic Brothel ban
Middernachtzendeling
Magazine Middernachtzendeling at UvA

23. Local regulations
1850 1911
1900
1880
Moral panic Brothel ban
Respons Prostitution Businesses

24. Local regulations
1850 1911
1900
1880
Moral panic Brothel ban
Respons Prostitution Businesses

25. Local regulations
1850 1911
1900
1880
Moral panic Brothel ban
Year reports council municipality
Land registers (kadaster)
Police archives
1910
1910
Impact housing law, 1902

26. Political Social/Cultural
Economical
Municipal council
reports / Year reports
Law / Ordinances
Population register
Middernachtzendeling
Land registers
Patents
Newspapers
Police archives
Court records
Newspapers
in short…

27. Economic Capital
Social Capital
Human Capital
 From middle sized municipalities to largest cities
(Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague)
 From self owned brothels to illegal prostitution in
lodging houses
 From local / family to national / global networks
 From local / national to foreign women
Legal,
but
still
taboo
Changes Prostitution Businesses

28. 28
Slide Resource
1 Image taken from: J.F. Slobbe, Bijdrage tot de geschiedenis en de bestrijding der prostitutie te Amsterdam (Amsterdam 1936) 94.
2 Gemeentebestuur Haarlem, 1813 – 1957, inv nrs 2700G - 2708G Dienstboderegisters. Portret Alida: NHA: Signalementsregister Amsterdam,1900
3 W. Van den Brink, Zedelijk Haarlem: de invloed van de moderne economische groei op het verloop van de Haarlemse prostitutie in de tweede helt van de
negentiende eeuw (Masterscriptie VU; Amsterdam 2008);
W. van den Brink, 'Zedelijk Haarlem' in: K. Matthijs e.a. (eds), Leven in de lage landen: Historisch-demografisch onderzoek in Vlaanderen en Nederland 1 (2010) 271
– 293.
4 Dutch version: https://prostitutieindenegentiendeeeuw.blogspot.com/
English version: https://19thcprostitution.blogspot.com/
5 Image Cornelia Winkelaar received from Karel Winkelaar. See also blog post: Cornelia Hermans Winkelaar, “Moeder Kee”
W. van den Brink, 'Alle bordelen zijn van Moeder Kee. Waarom Cornelia Winkelaar-Hermans de negentiende-eeuwse prostitutiemarkt in Haarlem domineerde'
Haerlem Jaarboek 84 (2013) 134 – 151
7 IISG: Collectie verordeningen op prostitutie in Nederland, 1856-1884, https://hdl.handle.net/10622/COLL00687 ;
Allard Pierson/University of Amsterdam (AP/UvA): De Middernachtzendeling uit 1893
Spoorwegmuseum (SWM): Van Santen’s officiële reisgids voor Nederland met de correspondentiën naar Duitsland, België en Frankrijk (Leiden 1878 en 1892).
See also my blog post: 40 Dutch regulations on prostitution
8 Krantenartikelen:
• Albert Sok. (10 juni 2021 donderdag). ChristenUnie/SGP wil rem op seksbedrijven in Dordrecht. AD/Algemeen
Dagblad.nl. https://advance.lexis.com/api/document?collection=news&id=urn:contentItem:62WF-PSC1-DY0X-94T8-00000-00&context=1516831
• WALTER HOOGERBEETSMICHIEL ODIJK. "Bordeelverbod leidt tot uitbuiting van sekswerkers". Trouw. 5 oktober 2020
maandag. https://advance.lexis.com/api/document?collection=news&id=urn:contentItem:610D-WG41-JC8X-60M3-00000-00&context=1516831
• S.n., “Nieuw Amsterdams 'erotisch centrum' komt bij RAI of NDSM-werf”. NOS. 16 februari 2023. https://nos.nl/artikel/2464071-nieuw-amsterdams-erotisch-
centrum-komt-bij-rai-of-ndsm-werf
• Wietske Koen. "Klant illegale sekswerker ook beboet". Leeuwarder Courant. 13 augustus 2022 zaterdag.
https://advance.lexis.com/api/document?collection=news&id=urn:contentItem:664W-KWD1-DYNS-J1S7-00000-00&context=1516831
Resources per slide

29. 29
Slide Resource
9 Books:
Bossenbroek, M. en J. H. Kompagnie, Het mysterie van de verdwenen bordelen: prostitutie in Nederland in de negentiende eeuw (Amsterdam 1998);
Vries, P. A. de, Kuisheid voor mannen, vrijheid voor vrouwen: de reglementering en bestrijding van prostitutie in Nederland, 1850-1911 (Hilversum 1997);
Corbin, A., Les filles de noce: misère sexuelle el prostitution aux 19e el 20e siècles (Paris 1978);
Walkowitz, J. R., City of dreadful delight: narratives of sexual danger in late- Victorian London (Chicago 1992);
Laite, J., Common Prostitutes, and ordinary citizens. Commercial sex in London, 1885-1960 (London 2012) and
Rodriguez Garcia, M., L. Heerma van Voss, and E. van Nederveen Meerkerk (eds), Selling Sex in the City: a Global History of Prostitution, 1600s-2000s
(Leiden 2017).
See also the literature lists on both my blogs.
10 Definition translated in Dutch from Wikipedia combined with theory of Lesger and Baumol.
Wikipedia: Ondernemer, https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ondernemer (visited: 07-06-2023).
C. Lesger, ‘Over het nut van huwelijk, oppertunisme en bedrog. Ondernemers en ondernemerschap tijdens de vroegmoderne tijd in theoretisch perspectief’, in:
C.A. Davids, W. Fritschy en L.A. van der Valk (red), Kapitaal, ondernemerschap en beleid (Amsterdam 1996) 55-75, aldaar 66.
12-13 Ordinances on prostitution in garrison towns. Based on the information in: M. Bossenbroek en J. H. Kompagnie, Het mysterie van de verdwenen bordelen:
prostitutie in Nederland in de negentiende eeuw (Amsterdam 1998) 339-340.
Ordinances on prostitution from: Middelburg, Ter Neuzen, Roermond, Utrecht and Brussels. Found at IISG and City Archives in Brussel
14-15 ELEO, Gemeentepolitie Leiden 1853 - 1993, inv. nrs. 2384 – 2386.
See also my Dutch blog post: Prostitutieregisters in Leiden,
16 Photo Josephine Butler: Glasgow Women’s Library, Archive Josephine Butler Society
Alfred Dyer. (2023, June 5). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Dyer
See also my blog posts on Josephine Butler: Josephine Butler: a very brief history,; Archief Josephine Butler Society,
Literature on the history of newspapers in the Netherlands, H. Wijfjes (ed), De krant: een cultuurgeschiedenis (Amsterdam 2019)
17 British Library: Birmingham mail, 14th April 1881
18 Reprint The Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon - Pall Mall Gazette taken from: W.T. Stead Resource Site, https://www.attackingthedevil.co.uk/the-maiden-tribute-
of-modern-babylon/the-maiden-tribute-of-modern-babylon-i/ (visited: 07-06-2023).
Quote taken from: Judith R. Walkowitz, ‘Jack the Ripperand the myth of male violence’, Feminist Studies, 8 (Autumn, 1982), 545.
19 February 1889 National Police Gazette illustration referencing the Whitechapel murders,
Whitechapel murders. (2023, April 17). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitechapel_murders

30. 30
Slide Resource
20 Delpher.nl: ‘Het Schandaal te ‘s- Gravendijk’, De standaard, 09-02-1884
Delpher.nl: ‘Jack the Ripper in Nederland’, De Volksstem, 13-09-1893
22 Photo: WvdB, De Middernachtzendeling at the University of Amsterdam
23 City Archive Amsterdam, inv. nr. 5136 - Inventaris van het Archief van de Commissie van Onderzoek naar de Prostitutie en de Hiertegen te Nemen Maatregelen,
1896-1897 See also my Dutch blogpost: Bronnen: Amsterdam - verdachte huizen in 1897 (16th April 2012) with thanks to Richard Keijzer for the tip.
24 Images taken from: J.F. Slobbe, Bijdrage tot de geschiedenis en de bestrijding der prostitutie te Amsterdam (Amsterdam 1936) 94.
25 Ordinances on prostitution in garrison towns. Based on the information in: Bossenbroek, M. en J. H. Kompagnie, Het mysterie van de verdwenen bordelen:
prostitutie in Nederland in de negentiende eeuw (Amsterdam 1998) 339-340.