Temperance & Prohibition

The paradoxical hallmarks of American culture–puritanical restraint and excessive consumption–are evident in this nation’s long and historically conflicted relationship with alcohol. The crusades of 19th century temperance leaders to make alcohol illegal; the underground drinking clubs generated by Prohibition (1920—1933); the free and celebratory cocktail culture that dominated in the United States through the 1970s; the more serious view of drinking and alcoholism beginning in the 1980s; the culture of binge drinking on college campuses today–all reflect our national ambivalence toward this most common of drugs.

Woman Suffrage and the Liquor Interests

Woman Suffrage and the Liquor Interests. New York: National Woman Suffrage Publishing Co., Inc., 1916.

Over the course of the 19th century, a close alliance evolved between the woman suffrage movement and temperance leaders. While some suffragists wanted to keep the issues separate, by the 1880s, liquor interests had come to see women’s suffrage as a threat to their livelihood. They foresaw that, once women had the vote, prohibition would not be far behind. Using their powerful financial and political resources, brewers and liquor dealers began organizing publicity campaigns against women’s rights.

Frances Elizabeth Willard

Frances Elizabeth Willard. Nineteen Beautiful Years, or, Sketches of a Girl's Life. Chicago: Woman's Temperance Publication Association, 1886.

Throughout the 19th century, women played a prominent role in the promotion of "temperance," or restraint in the use of alcohol. Women had experienced first-hand how the time and money their husbands spent in bars harmed the family–especially when a drunken evening ended in a beating for the wife or the children, as it often did.

Under Frances E. Willard’s leadership, the Women’s Christian Temperance Union became the era’s leading temperance organization–many times larger than the suffrage organizations led by Susan B. Anthony or Elizabeth Cady Stanton.

Alcoholism and Degeneration

The Scientific Temperance Federation. Alcoholism and Degeneration. Boston, ca. 1910.

Presenting the "scientific" evidence for the genetic hazards of alcohol consumption, this card shows how temperance organizations used printed propaganda to advance their agenda.

Cocktail Culture

So Red the Nose or, Breath in the Afternoon. Edited by Sterling North and Carl Kroch. Illustrated by Roy C. Nelson. New York: Farrar & Rinehart, 1935.

Patrick Gavin Duffy. The Standard Bartender's Guide. New York: Permabooks, 1948.

After Prohibition, Americans redeveloped their taste for alcohol. By the 1930s, many Americans had come to view the consumption of wine and liquor as an essential component of the "good life." Writers, film actors, artists, and other visible models of glamorous success reinforced this idea.

With cocktail culture in full swing, numerous guides appeared which showed readers how to equip their home bars and impress their friends with alluring concoctions.