"Working Girls chronicles the unique and artful private photographs of commercial photographer William Goldman, whose collection of work captures the deep appreciation and understanding of the group of women who lived and worked at a brothel in Reading, Pennsylvania, circa 1892. Taken two decades before the famous E. J. Bellocq photographs of the 1913 sex workers in Storyville, New Orleans, these beautifully produced photographs are the earliest known body of work on this subject in the United States, only now seeing the light of day. " -- provided by publisher