Adeline Miller, alias Adeline Furman, was an American madam and prostitute. According to her contemporary George Templeton Strong, Miller had been active in New York City prostitution since the late 1810s.^[1] By 1821, she was running a bordello on Church Street, where she had accumulated personal effects worth at least $500.^[2] Madam or maam is a title for a woman. ... A woman who exercises prostitution in Germany Prostitution is the sale of sexual services, such as oral sex or sexual intercourse, for money. ... NYC and New York, New York redirect here. ... Prostitution is the sale of sexual services (typically manual stimulation, oral sex, sexual intercourse, or anal sex) for cash or other kind of return, generally indiscriminately with many persons. ...

Over Miller's 30-year career, she became quite wealthy. At one point or another, Miller ran houses on Duane, Elm, Orange, and Reade streets. She owned but did not manage another brothel on Cross Street. Rumors suggested that in the 1840s, she charged her girls $14 a week to stay in her brothels.^[3] By 1855, she had many personal residences; the one on Church Street alone contained effects valued at $5,000.^[2]

Miller was a celebrity as well. Her name appeared in tourist guidebooks and in the diaries of rich New Yorkers.^[4] The Libertine opined that she and Phoebe Doty, another madam, should rent New York's Park Theatre and talk about their exploits. The paper predicted that "the house would be crammed if the entrance was five dollars a head. The bigger the harlot now-a-days the more money is made."^[5] By the 1840s, the aging Miller had become the subject of negative press, particularly from the Whip. The paper called her a "grey-haired hag" and "the most wicked procuress in the city."^[6] For the 1998 movie, see Celebrity (1998 movie). ... Libertine is the name given to certain political or social groups active in Europe in the 17th century. ... A whip is a tapered flexible length of either a single cord or plaited (braided) leather or other material, commonly with a stiff handle. ...

Miller had children, though all entered more mainstream professions.

Notes

1. ^ Gilfoyle 70-1.
2. ^ ^2.1 2.2 Gilfoyle 71.
3. ^ Gilfoyle 169.
4. ^ Gilfoyle 84.
5. ^ Quoted in Giilfoyle 73. Emphasis in original.
6. ^ Quoted in Gilfoyle 71.

References

• Gilfoyle, Timothy J. (1992). City of Eros: New York City, Prostitution, and the Commercialization of Sex, 1790—1920. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.