Vice districts, saloons, and prostitution are things of HBO series set in the West. And yet, the actual people who inhabited these roles and places had real effects on their communities. Melvina Massey, an African American brothel owner who lived in Fargo and ran one of the city’s most notable establishments between the 1880s and 1911, serves as a case study through which to examine the history and larger impacts of those living on the fringes of society. After students in Dr. Angela Smith’s public history class first discovered Madam Massey in the local archives, Smith continued to look for more in-depth biographical data that would help shed light on broader historical patterns. Dr. Kristen Fellows, a historical archaeologist with research interests in race, gender, and the African Diaspora, joined the research team in 2014 and added an anthropological approach to the mix. Their collaboration has resulted in an exhibit on the red-light district in Fargo (2017) and an edited volume on the topic of historical sex work (2020) which includes chapters on Massey and her brothel. This talk will focus on Massey, but also on recent advances in the history and archaeology of historical sex work.