They were mounted in albums where they remained until the early 21st century when they were acquired by Robert Flynn Johnson, a historian of photography, who published them in 2018.

They have been described as offering insights into the costume and interior decoration of the period as well as the social conditions of working-class women for some of whom prostitution was seen as preferable to poorly-paid factory or shop work where they often faced demands for sex from their superiors.

[1] Contemporary sources describe him as "an exceedingly popular gentleman ... identified with numerous of the city's secret and social organizations," including Reading Lodge No.

[12] Reading was a fast-expanding city in the late 19th century, its growth spurred by the arrival of the railway that brought workers and businessmen in and with a hierarchy of places where sex could be purchased.

"[15] Goldman's collection, which has been compared to that of E. J. Bellocq in New Orleans, was found by Robert Flynn Johnson around 2010 in the stock of a postcard dealer at a fair in Concord, California.

He initially bought only two photographs before visiting the dealer at her home in the Sierra Foothills and gradually purchasing the rest of the collection.

The dealer told him that the photographs had been bought by her late husband at a gun show in Cincinnati, Ohio, and had originally been mounted in albums from which they had been removed.

[13] Johnson searched archives in Pennsylvania and found no evidence that the images were distributed, nor does he believe that they were used as a catalogue for male customers as the high turnover of women in an establishment like Shearer's made that impractical.

[25] Goldman's interest in the nude female form, which was difficult for him to photograph using the "respectable" women of his time as models, is obvious, as is the risk of scandal and ruin had his collection become widely known in Victorian Reading.