Proposal Title
Historic Harlotry: A Revealing Look at How a Museum Partnership Prompted Prostitution Research for Racy Rhetorical Analysis
Proposal Type
Individual Presentation
Location
Olscamp 201: Rhetoric of Collaboration
Start Date
21-10-2017 11:15 AM
End Date
21-10-2017 12:30 PM
Abstract
Findlay, Ohio’s Victorian “houses of ill fame” and their residents were compelling subjects for a University of Findlay graduate project conducted in collaboration with the Hancock Historical Museum. Research indicates the women’s economic contributions during the city’s oil and gas boom years factored heavily into the municipality’s early growth.
Historic Harlotry: A Revealing Look at How a Museum Partnership Prompted Prostitution Research for Racy Rhetorical Analysis
Olscamp 201: Rhetoric of Collaboration
Findlay, Ohio’s Victorian “houses of ill fame” and their residents were compelling subjects for a University of Findlay graduate project conducted in collaboration with the Hancock Historical Museum. Research indicates the women’s economic contributions during the city’s oil and gas boom years factored heavily into the municipality’s early growth.
Proposal
Sex was studied for the unlikeliest of reasons. This project was inspired by an assignment for the University of Findlay’s fall 2016 Contemporary Rhetorical Theory graduate course: Collaborate with the Hancock Historical Museum in Findlay, Ohio to identify an artifact(s) for in-depth rhetorical study, and publicly present those findings during a “Night at the Museum.” This academic and community venture is now giving voice to a marginalized, largely forgotten, but influential contingent – Findlay’s 19th century prostitutes.
The presentation will assert that within our heightened digitized world, there remains room for traditional teamwork approaches to historically relevant topics that can inform our rhetorical understandings. Multiple collaborations were essential to this project’s success. Ongoing research is partnering with these past residents via primary resources and contextual place and space methodologies encouraged by rhetorical feminist theorists Jacqueline Joyce Royster and Gesa Kirsch. Also evident is how dissensus and discomfort can enhance such collaborative studies. Trusting one’s intuition enough to tackle controversial themes can, if approached with sensitivity and agency, be rewarding. Although serendipity played a role, careful negotiations took place between many parties regarding scholarly and presentational appropriateness for different audiences.
Resulting is valuable knowledge about the lasting impact of Findlay’s Victorian prostitutes. Research indicates that prostitution during the oil and gas boom era provided a substantial income stream that was used to serve a municipality with an exploding population. The significant number of brothels contributed to certain foundational endeavors, some of which are evident and in use today.