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m Undid revision 1223295885 by 72.49.151.249 (talk) Undoing good faith edit from IP, in this context, being a folklorist is far more relevant than former employment to Snopes |
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Red-light districts are mentioned in the 1882 minutes of a [[Woman's Christian Temperance Union]] meeting in the United States.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NN5CAQAAMAAJ|title=Minutes of the Ninth Annual Meeting|pages=332, 333 & 363|publisher=National Woman's Christian Temperance Union|year=1882}}</ref> The ''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]'' records the earliest known appearance of the term "red light district" in print as an 1894 article from the ''[[Sandusky Register]]'', a newspaper in [[Sandusky, Ohio]].{{cn|date=September 2023}}
Author Paul Wellman suggests that this and other terms associated with the [[American Old West]] originated in [[Dodge City, Kansas]], home to a well-known prostitution district during the 19th century, which included the Red Light House saloon.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/tramplingherd00well|url-access=registration|quote=Paul Wellman Dodge City red light.|last=Wellman|first=Paul Iselin|title=The Trampling Herd: The Story of the Cattle Range in America|publisher=University of Nebraska Press|year=1988|isbn=0-8032-9723-8|page=[https://archive.org/details/tramplingherd00well/page/195 195]}}</ref> This has not been proven, but the Dodge City use was likely responsible for the term's pervasiveness.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yxxHnAq50wsC|last=Barra|first=Allen|title=Inventing Wyatt Earp: His Life and Many Legends|publisher=University of Nebraska Press|year=2009|isbn=978-0803220584}}</ref> A widespread [[folk etymology]] claims that early [[railroad]] workers took red lanterns with them when they visited brothels so their crew could find them in the event of an emergency. However, folklorist Barbara Mikkelson
[[File:JudgeMagazine12Jan1901.jpg|thumb|right|An early reference to red-light districts on a January 1901 ''[[Judge (magazine)|Judge]]'' cover]]
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