Bill Le Furgy – Medium

Bill Le Furgy

Single Women and the Telephone: From “Hello Girls” to Tech Pessimism

The telephone was wildly disruptive. It was a radical innovation that brought change, not the least for single women, both in the workplace…

3 min readNov 4, 2021

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Single Women and the Telephone: From “Hello Girls” to Tech Pessimism

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Bill Le Furgy

Sex in Baltimore: Shocking Report Kept from the Public

In 1915 a government study on illicit sex left Baltimore “naked and exposed.” The Maryland Vice Commission, in the words of one excitable…

4 min readMay 10, 2020

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Photograph by William I. Goldman (1856–1922), taken between 1892 and 1900 in Sallie Shearer’s brothel in Reading, Pennsylvani

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Bill Le Furgy

Have There Always Been People on the Autism Spectrum?

What we now call autism has long existed among humans. But medicine only began noticing the particular set of physical and mental traits…

5 min readApr 8, 2020

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Have There Always Been People on the Autism Spectrum?

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Bill Le Furgy

Rats, Cops, and Punks: Criminal Slang From 1908 Lives On

The popularity of these terms in American English is due, in part, to an obscure Boston lawyer who, perhaps as a lark, published a slim…

5 min readMar 25, 2020

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Rats, Cops, and Punks: Criminal Slang From 1908 Lives On

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Bill Le Furgy

The Coronavirus Could Mutate Into Something Far Worse: Lessons From the 1918 Flu Pandemic

We have plenty of good reasons to worry about the coronavirus (COVID-19). It spreads rapidly. There is no vaccine. People die from it. Yet…

3 min readMar 7, 2020

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The Coronavirus Could Mutate Into Something Far Worse: Lessons From the 1918 Flu Pandemic

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Bill Le Furgy

Women Doctors Faced Profound Discrimination a Century Ago

Women now make up about 60 percent of doctors under 35. The situation was very different in the past.

3 min readFeb 23, 2020

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Women Doctors Faced Profound Discrimination a Century Ago

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Bill Le Furgy

A viral song from 1909 turned American music sexy, rude, and violent

Posted on February 20, 2020 by Bill LeFurgy

4 min readFeb 21, 2020

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A viral song from 1909 turned American music sexy, rude, and violent

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Bill Le Furgy

Bill Le Furgy

Author of Sarah Kennecott and Jack Harden historical mystery series set in pre-WWI Baltimore. Consumer of archives, digital and analog.

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