Prostitution and trafficking

Background

Our collection holds primary source material relating to prostitution, human trafficking, the treatment of venereal diseases, sexual health and sexuality. The majority of the material dates from the late 19th to the mid 20th century.

Josephine Butler and the prostitution campaigns

• Josephine Butler campaigned for the repeal of the Contagious Diseases Acts of the 1860s which was finally successful in 1886. Her letters provide an insight into this campaign.
• Ladies' National Association for the Repeal of the Contagious Diseases Acts was established in 1869 and led by Josephine Butler to oppose the state regulation of prostitution. Its weekly journal was The Shield was published from 1870 to 1886. From the 1890s, this organisation was concerned with regulation of prostitution in the Empire, especially in India.

International prostitution and trafficking

A related topic to prostitution is human trafficking, historically known as the ‘white slave trade’.

• International Abolitionist Federation was founded in 1875 by Josephine Butler to campaign for the legal and constitutional rights of prostitute women, to abolish traffic in persons and to eliminate the marginalisation of women and children internationally.
• National Vigilance Association and the International Bureau for Suppression of Traffic in Persons aimed to aid and protect women, children and young men in the areas of sexual and social morality. 

Sexual health and sexual offences

• Association for Moral and Social Hygiene was founded in 1915 and renamed the Josephine Butler Society in 1962. It campaigned against state regulation of prostitution in India and attempted to repeal the provisions of the Defence of the Realm Acts in the First and Second World Wars. It was also concerned with a wide range of issues relating to sexuality in general.
• Josephine Butler Society Library contains a unique collection of books, pamphlets, journals, leaflets and campaigning documents. Printed material dates from the late nineteenth to mid-twentieth centuries. 

Prostitution in Victorian London

• The Charles Booth archive contains references to prostitutes in Victorian London. 

How to search  

You can find more material on this topic using a person’s name, by organisation, by event, by keyword eg age of consent, child prostitution, criminal law, criminology, prostitution, public health, sexuality, sexual offences, social morality, social purity, traffic in women and children, venereal disease, white slave trade in these catalogues.

• Archives catalogue
• Library Search

View lists of further resources covering:

• Societies for Abolition of State Regulation of Prostitution.
• Societies for the Suppression of Traffic in Persons.

How to access

Most of the material highlighted here is stored in closed access and must be consulted in The Women’s Library Reading Room. Find out how to book your place and order material on our access archives and special collections page.

Further information

If you need specific help with any of the collections mentioned here get in touch with our Curator for Equality, Rights and Citizenship, Gillian Murphy.