William Goldman (photographer)

William I. Goldman
William I. Goldman[1]
Born	(1856-03-27)March 27, 1856 Wernersville, Pennsylvania, US
Died	January 25, 1922(1922-01-25) (aged 65)
Resting place	Charles Evans Cemetery
Nationality	American
Occupation	Photographer
Known for	Photographs of Reading's prostitutes

William I. Goldman (March 27, 1856 – January 25, 1922) was an American commercial photographer based in Reading, Pennsylvania. A freemason and pillar of the community, Goldman photographed the citizens of Reading but also secretly assembled a collection of photographs of the prostitutes of Sallie Shearer's brothel, which was near his studio.

His brothel photographs were apparently known only to Goldman and his subjects and, as far as is known, were not sold or published during his lifetime. 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.^[2]