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Inge @ingea1961.bsky.social · 13h

(which was not permitted). Public prostitution was abolished in Odense in 1894 and two years later in the rest of Denmark. #polymerclay #womenontheedge #odense #womeninhistory

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Inge @ingea1961.bsky.social · 13h

there were areas of town they were not allowed to go. Between 1885 and 1894, 116 "public women" were registered in a few buildings on one street in Odense. The registry contains notes about the women such as "prone to drinking", "do not get on well with the other girls" or "has boyfriend again"

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Inge @ingea1961.bsky.social · 13h

of public order was introduced. This meant, in effect, government-controlled prostitution. After two warnings, the woman was written into the "Registry of public women" and forced to live in appointed brothels. They had to undergo regular medical examinations (uncomfortable and humiliating), and

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Inge @ingea1961.bsky.social · 13h

came from the surrounding villages, hoping for an easier life in the newly industrialized towns, and many came from other towns after getting a warning there. The women were usually in their early twenties, most having been maids before. In 1874 a law to limit spread of vd and avoid disturbances

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Inge @ingea1961.bsky.social · 13h

society, and prostitution was seen as a necessary safety valve that protected respectable women from "certain passions", and it was believed that women from lower classes in society had sexual drive like animals. But vd were widespread, and prostitution was very visible in the growing towns. Many

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Inge @ingea1961.bsky.social · 13h

but in 1920 she married a Danish farmer from USA. They moved ti Minnesota and had a child. After her husband's death she married an elderly man, and in 1950 she was owner of a grocery store. Had these women been a generation older, they would have fared worse. Customers came from all parts of

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Inge @ingea1961.bsky.social · 13h

was arrested for theft in 1917 (dee previous post) she said she was in Odense to visit her husband, a waiter who was at this time recruit at Odense military barracks. This was Stella's first conviction but she did suffer from both gonorrhea and syphilis. What happened the following years is unclear,

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Inge @ingea1961.bsky.social · 13h

Christine Christiansen (Stella) was born in 1895. When she

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Inge @ingea1961.bsky.social · 14h

You are so good at humorous sculpts

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Inge @ingea1961.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

children. In 1924 they married and emigrated to Toronto where Nelly's brother lived. She died in Canada in 1971, 81 years old.

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Inge @ingea1961.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

parents. She continued like this for some years, at times being sentenced to forced labour which could be weaving, sewing and washing, because she would't tell whom she lived with. In 1921 she became house keeper for a man who had returned from the West Indies. Over the next two years they had two

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Inge @ingea1961.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

post) shared a customer and stole the money from his well-padded wallet. They spent the night and the money entertaining friends in bars, and were arrested the following day. Nelly got 80 days in prison for theft and for breaking the conditions of an earlier warning as she no longer lived with her

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Inge @ingea1961.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

prostitution, so for a while she stayed out of prison. In 1915 she got a legal job at the glass works, but got fired after a month because colleagues refused to work alongside a prostitute. After this, Nelly gave up looking for jobs. An evening in 1917, Nelly and Stella (more about Stella in a later

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Inge @ingea1961.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Hospital for syphilis treatment, she teamed up with Musse (previous post). After 30 days in prison for spreading vd, she continued prostitution to earn money to spend on bars and entertainment. As she lived with her parents and got board and lodging at home, she did not in the legal sense live off

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Inge @ingea1961.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Nelly Helene Sørensen was born in 1895. In 1914, out of

Polymer clay figure (head and shoulders) of a young woman Nelly

The figures of Nelly with the previous 7 in this project

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Inge @ingea1961.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

yeas old to the USA where she remarried. She was still alive in USA in 1954, but the track ends there. #womensontheedge #womenshistory #polymerclay

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Inge @ingea1961.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

wineshop. When he left Musse in 1923, she accused him of violence, of forcing her to prostitution and of fraud connected to the wine business. The police did not find proof of this and concluded that Musse's accusations was a revenge for having been dumped. After the divorce, Musse emigrated as 31

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Inge @ingea1961.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Nelly move in and work with her in madam Jensen's house. When they were anonymously informed on and got arrested, Musse got a sentence of 12 days forced labour for breaking the police warning. In 1915 Musse married a hispital caregiver. They moved to Copenhagen where he became department head in a

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Inge @ingea1961.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

police warning for prostitution as 17 years old in Aalborg in 1909. Her merchant father tried in wain to keep her away from the bars. She moved to Odense where she met Rosa, who suggested that she moved in with her. When Musse had Rosa kicked out (see previous post), Musse kept the boyfriend and had

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Inge @ingea1961.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Marie Jacobine Knudsen (pretty Musse) got her first

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Inge @ingea1961.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

they both got prison sentences for theft and trading in stolen goods. Later, Rosa opened a laundry. Her husband got serious mentsl problems fron syphilis and died in mental hospital. Rosa died in 1960.

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Inge @ingea1961.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Musse fell out and Rosa got kicked out of the rented room. Soon after, Musse was arrested and she informed on Rosa and other girls. Rosa, still sick with syphilis, was hospitalized and got 30 days in prison for spreading vd. In 1914 she moved to Copenhagen with a man who opened a butcher's shop, but

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Inge @ingea1961.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

agreement, and seemingly he would be paid for his service by free sex ad libitum. Pretty Musse (more about Musse in a later post) moved in with Rosa. They worked together, and they shared a 17 year old boyfriend whom they entertained by taking him to variety showd, restaurants and bars. Rosa and

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Inge @ingea1961.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

old with an injunction to stay away from sexual relations, she rented a room in madam Jensen's house. Madan Jensen's rooms were cheap, because she also recieved a share of the girl's earnings from prostitution. To avoid police suspicion of running a brothel, she required a man's name on the rental

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Inge @ingea1961.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Wilhemine Elisabeth Ludvigsen (Rosa) was born in 1891. 21 years

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Inge @ingea1961.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

poorhouse many women would move on to another town where she could go under police radar for a while, until she was cought again and had to move on

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Inge @ingea1961.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

She lost custody over her children, needed pwrmission to marry, and did not have control over her belongings. Men lost their right to vote but women did not have voting rights until 1915. A poorhouse was like a prison with locked doors, forced labour and humiliating punishments. To avoid the

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Inge @ingea1961.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

She was in poorhouse for a while. Failing to report to the police weekly, the authorities would place her in the poorhouse, where she would be deprived of her civil rights. She was not free to decide when to leave, and if allowed to leave she was not free to decide where to live or what job to take.

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Inge @ingea1961.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

seller, hairdresser and dancer, and died childless, 56 years old in 1951.

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Inge @ingea1961.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

that she had a proper job. When she and Stella (more about her in a later post) were arrested for stealing a gold cigar case from a man at a bar, she again tested positive for several vd. After hospital and prison, she moved to Copenhagen, married twice, held various jobs as housekeeper, fashion

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Inge @ingea1961.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

18 years old, Lilje Maja Nissen Riisberg (Bella) was married and divorced. Two years later she moved to Odense, where she was soon arrested and hospitalised with syphilis and gonorrhea. Out of hospital she took up prostitution again, was arrested and had to report to the police weekly to document

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Inge @ingea1961.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

seamstress or saleswoman paid only board and lodging, she emigrated to USA in 1921, ticket paid by her brother who lived in Texas. #polymerclay #womenshistory #kvinderpåkanten #womenontheedge

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Inge @ingea1961.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

out in the evenings to find customers. The police never found enough evidence to convict him og pimping (but he was sentenced for fraud). After several more prison and forced labour sentences and hospital stays for VD treatment, with him as pimp and later on her own, sometimes holding jobs as

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Inge @ingea1961.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Oline Vilhemine Rasmussen had had a couple of convictions for prostitution in Copenhagen and Odense before she showd up in the records in 1913 as housekeeper for a man who pretended to be an American trained foot doctor. He brawled about having a girlfriend he could live off, beat her and forced her

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Inge @ingea1961.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

prison sentence and a fine. After this Olga worked as a waitress, married and divorced 4 times, and died at the age of 96. #polymerclay #womenshistory #kvinderpåkanten

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Inge @ingea1961.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

As she also stopped going to control, she became wanted by the police. During the next 2 month she moved around between people she knew from being in foster care since the age of three, and eventually moved in with her father. When her brother became aware, he alerted the police. She got a 30 days

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Inge @ingea1961.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Olga Maria Camilla Petersen was born in 1899. After being hospitalized with gonorrhea as 17 years old (infected by a merchant) she had to meet for regular control at the doctor's and abstain from sexual relationships until fully cured. But very soon she met a young man who persuaded her to have sex.

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Inge @ingea1961.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Thank you. I am very worried about how the the future for women is looking bad in our part of the world again

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Inge @ingea1961.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

criminals). The book is based on photos, interrogation protocols etc. In Odense, most of these documents has been preserved while in other places most were destroyed.

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Inge @ingea1961.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Juliane with Anna and Karen. More about Juliane in a later post. These sculpts are inspired by the mug shots and criminal records of real women I learned about in the book "Kvinder på kanten. Et forbryderalbum Odense 1879-1918" by Søren Marquardt Frederiksen". (Women on the edge. An album of

3 sculpted females busts in front of a page with late 19th century mug shots of women

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Inge @ingea1961.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

prostitution. She denied the accusations but admitted to sleeping with many men who gifted her clothes, and drinks and food in pubs. After the 24 days forced labour punishment she returned to live with her parents where she died from pneumonia, 38 years old, without any belongings. #womenontheedge

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Inge @ingea1961.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

managed to be deleted from the register and worked as maid in boarding houses. An out of town cow dealer promised to marry her, but after living with him for half a year without being married, she left and went back to Odense. The cow dealer then reported her to the police for theft and

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Inge @ingea1961.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Anna Marie Johanne Olsen, born 1878. She was 16 years old when she got her first warning for prostitution. 5 years later she got an 8 days prison sentence, and 3 years later an 18 days forced labour sentence, followed by a forced registration as "public woman" (more about this in a later post). She

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Inge @ingea1961.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

rich archival material. Often children of single mothers, these women on the bottom of the industrialising society had few options. I hope to create more of these and tell their stories in future posts. #polymerclay #womenontheedge

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Inge @ingea1961.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Karen Nielsen was born in 1867. She was not married, worked as day labourer and maid, and was convicted 11 times for petty theft. I learned about her and other women in similar situations in the book "Kvinder på kanten" about 36 convicted women in my hometown over 40 years around 1900, based on

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Inge @ingea1961.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Tapet på kærestens værelse

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