"Hookers" in the Washington Post

[Barry A. Popik]

     The Washington Post, 13 May 1999, District Weekly section, page 1, has a
story "Tame by Comparison/ Buttoned-Down D.C. Has A History of Sexual
Excess."
A diagram "Houses of Ill Repute in 1864" has this caption:

     Streetwalkers, top and bottom, were photographed by E. J. Bellocq at the
turn of the century.  During the Civil War, newspapers called the area around
14th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue "Hooker's Division," because troops of
Gen. Joe Hooker, center, spent so much time there.

     Buried near the end of the article, on pg. DC2, col. 3:

     Although the term hooker is widely attributed to his action, the Oxford
English Dictionary says the word originated in 1845 in Norfolk.  Either way,
newspaper stories in Washington began referring to the area around 14th
Street NW and Pennsylvania Avenue as Hooker's Division.

     It's time for George Thompson to get his name in the Washington Post.