RARE photos of Colorado brothels during the 1800s show America's Wild West and the tough women who plied their trade.
Brothels were nearly impossible to escape from as their controlling owners fostered a competitive atmosphere between prostitutes, and they were given little food.
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Prostitute Emma Lillis Quigley, shown after her transformation from an outwardly respectable citizen, circa 1880s. After this picture was taken of her, business increased proportionally. It was said she wore nearly £5,000 in jewels during afternoon strollsCredit: News Dog Media
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Famous Old West Madam Jennie Rogers who operated in a two-storey-high brick brothel in Denver. According to Cowgirl magazine, in her heyday, raven-haired Rogers was a tall, attractive madam and 'self-proclaimed Queen of the Colorado underworld'. Denver's red light district in 1880 was a busy area, after the discovery of gold drew miners and their familiesCredit: News Dog Media
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The Club in the gold rush town of Cripple Creek, Colorado, about 1892. The photo shows a quintessential Old West sin palace with musicians, the madam (bottom right, striped dress), housemaids and the ladies that wore white brothel gowns hanging out of the upstairs windows. There is also a baby in a pram, bottom left. Gold was struck in Cripple Creek in October, 1890. The town's population increased from a sparse 500 to a bustling 10,000 in just three yearsCredit: News Dog Media
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Four women in Bob Ford's brothel, taken in the boom town of Creede, Colorado, in 1892. Ford, at the age of 19, killed notorious outlaw Jesse James. The newspaper in Creede said that Ford 'keeps a restless eye on the crowd about him, while ever near him lies the gun which he brought down by a shot from behind, the much-feared Missouri outlaw'Credit: News Dog Media
The times were synonymous with gunfights, heavy drinking, gun-toting outlaws, sheriffs and solitary men on horseback.
These rare pictures - taken around the turn of the 19th century - show "soiled doves", women in white dresses who came to boom towns such as Denver to keep the working men company.
Other photos feature the infamous bordellos, showing madams, men, women, maids and even babies having a time of it in the Wild West.
The highly mythologised American Frontier saw economic workers traipsing out the Western states of the Union in search of lucrative work.
Boom towns and villages that struck gold became magnets for prospectors who would then flock to a town to work on the mine.
One such Coloradan town was Cripple Creek where gold was struck in October, 1890.
The town’s population increased from a sparse 500 to a bustling 10,000 in just three years.
And where men went, women would follow. A girl of "easy virtue" could make good money by keeping the workers company.
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Wearing a customary white brothel gown (left, in doorway), while another girl wearing a dark hat, far left, these prostitutes were pictured greeting passersby along Market Street in Denver, 1905. The street was the notorious hedonistic area of Denver in the 19th and 20th century, known simply as The Row. If the man doesn't stop he may be taunted, or the worker might even snatch off his hat, throwing it inside so he must enter the brothel to retrieve itCredit: News Dog Media
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Unidentified Denver prostitutes, Colorado, circa 1890sCredit: News Dog Media
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Emma Lillis Quigley before her transformation from a well-known opera singer to working as a prostitute in Creede, circa 1882. This image was taken just after she had arrived from a Nebraska farm to the big city of Denver. Quigley soon discovered that gentlemen would eagerly pay for certain favours, so she abandoned her outward respectability. She earned the nickname 'Creede Lil' and was said to own a home decorated with velvet carpets, tapestries and Oriental decorCredit: News Dog Media
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Ed Chase's Palace Theatre in Denver. This establishment was situated outside the designated brothel district, but it was the first place prospectors and travellers would go to from the train station for feminine diversions and jollification. It hosted racy stage shows, fancy buffets, gambling and booze. The Palace, as it was known, was famous throughout the Old WestCredit: News Dog Media
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A potential male client walks down Market Street in Denver, as a prostitute hangs from her doorway (no 2032), during the 1890s. The street was a notorious area of Denver known simply as The RowCredit: News Dog Media
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The Tremont on Blair Street in the mining town of Silverton in the San Juan mountains. Offering a combination of a saloon and a brothel, there was booze available downstairs and women working upstairs. The madam, pioneer prostitute Matilda 'Big Tilly' Fattor, is shown bottom left with her husband Celeste in the apron next to her, 1893Credit: News Dog Media
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Famous Old West Madam Mattie Silks. Flamboyant Mattie operated in Denver and other towns in Colorado. According to newspaper headlines, Silks - who liked to adorn herself in the finish silk - was fined for drunkenness, and 'paid it like a little woman', said Rocky Mountain News, 1877Credit: News Dog Media
One photograph taken in Cripple Creek shows a bordello called The Club.
It’s a quintessential Old West sin palace with musicians, the madam, housemaids and the ladies that wore white brothel gowns hanging out of the upstairs windows.
The white gown was the uniform worn by prostitutes in the Old West.
Two photographs both show a woman called Jenny Shears in two completely different outfits.
One is demure, and befitting of an American lady of those times, while the other depicts a wild look while wearing the symbolic white dress.
Although it is impossible to determine the reason for Shears' different images, one possibility is that one portrait was for her family back home, and the other for business purposes.
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Belle Binard's brothel on the Denver Row, circa 1885. It was one of the finer establishment. Prostitutes at this time were plying for business from visiting gamblers, fur trappers, cowboys and minersCredit: News Dog Media
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This picture shows Jenny Shears in her traditional and respectable outfit that befitted a lady of the time, circa 1893Credit: News Dog Media
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Jenny Shears showing a much wilder look in a white gown, which was symbolic of working as a prostitute, in about 1893. Brothels were 'nearly impossible to escape' from, as their owners fostered a competitive atmosphere between prostitutes, and they were given little foodCredit: News Dog Media
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Two women wearing white brothel gowns are seen in the facade of 2130 Market Street, Denver, 1905, as three men wander down the mud-filled filthy street Credit: News Dog Media
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