Brown Bag Lunch Speaker Series: Sex Work in Civil War Washington

Please bring your lunch and enjoy a 30 minute lecture at the Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office Museum!

Join Katie Kirkpatrick, founder of Off the Mall tours and historian of 19th century sex work in Washington, DC, as she shares insights that she has discovered in the course of writing her book, “Sex Work in Civil War Washington, and Beyond.” Her work began with researching her walking tour, Madams of DC, for which she spent extensive time mining vital records and other primary source documentation, attempting to piece together the lost stories of women were successful Madams or sex workers, starting with the Civil War period, but continuing into the years that followed. This talk explores the specific stories of three sex workers that appear on her tour, and feature in her book. 

Katie Kirkpatrick is the founder of Off the Mall Tours. She is proud to call herself a DC resident since 2002. She moved to the capital after college for graduate school, and then worked in government for many years. However, history was always her first love.  She started her touring career by giving historical ghost tour pub crawls, and discovered a passion for sharing the varied and layered history of the capital area. So, she started her own company, drawing upon her interests in unique stories, a flair for costuming, and her love of DC. 

Reservations are required and may be made here. Admission to the Museum is included in ticket price.