I have assembled a remarkable collection of artifacts from the Prohibition Era. I would like to highlight some of the items in our collections.
It has been over 100 years since the United States passed the National Prohibition Act. On September 18, 2020, we published an article on our website entitled “100th Anniversary of Prohibition in the United States.” I invite you to review the article at this link.
Here are highlights for you to enjoy in our collection:
The Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU)
The Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), the nation’s largest women’s organization during the late 1800s, attracted over 150,000 mostly Protestant, middle-class members by 1900. The WCTU provided thousands of Christian women with a perceivably riskless transition into the secular world of women’s associations.
The initial purpose of the WCTU was to promote abstinence from alcohol, which they protested with pray-ins at local taverns. Their membership grew rapidly.
The 1877 convention in Chicago was a pivotal moment in transitioning the WCTU from a primarily evangelical temperance group to a more politically active organization that championed women’s suffrage as a necessary means for social reform.
Francis Willard (9/28/1839-2/17/1898) was a famous personality associated with this organization until her death. Willard was an educator, reformer, and suffragist. She graduated from Northwestern Female College in Evanston, Illinois, in 1859. Frances was a teacher for 16 years, where she promoted coeducation and a comprehensive education curriculum. She also served as president of Evanston College for Ladies and later as the first female dean of Northwestern University. After the Civil War, Frances became increasingly involved with social issues.
Ms. Willard’s work greatly contributed to the passage of the 18th and 19th amendments. Her goal was to educate others and incite change. She was actively involved in the camp meetings of the mid-1800s, the kindergarten movement (initially private, it became a public-school staple between 1890 and 1920), and federally funded training for teachers. The first woman to be acknowledged and honored for her remarkable lifetime accomplishments is Frances Willard, with a statue in the National Statuary Hall of the United States Capitol.
EPH305 WCTU Pledge Card From 1877 WCTU Chicago Convention
EPH125 Chromolithograph of Frances Elizabeth Willard
Carrie Nation
Caroline Amelia Nation (11/25/1846-6/9/1911) was an American, radical member of the temperance movement. As such, she opposed alcohol consumption before the advent of Prohibition. Carrie, or Carry, is noted for attacking alcohol-serving establishments with a hatchet.
As years passed, she became increasingly religious and had a variety of visions she interpreted as a call from God to fight drunkenness. After her family moved to Kansas she founded a chapter of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union. Many of her fellow reformers used speeches, sermons and literature to convince people not to drink. In 1900, she began walking into saloons, off-limits for any respectable woman, and caused a commotion. She would read Bible passages, sing hymns, and destroy whatever she could.
Editorial Cartoon Circa 1895 American Stock/Getty Images
She earned a reputation as a saloon smasher. “She had been arrested more often than any other living woman. Carrie Nation smashed upwards of 500 American tavern and public house bars.”
EPH307 B&W Budget Magazine December 6, 1902 Mrs. Carrie Nation with her Hatchet and Bible
The Young People’s Christian Temperance Union (YCTU)
The YCTU and its related branches were youth-focused branches of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union to promote moral education, total abstinence from alcohol and tobacco, and Christian values among youth. The Youth Temperance Council was developed for children over 12 years of age with a motto of “A Good Time with a Purpose” and a focus on strengthening families.
The Wine History Project has a postcard sent by the organization to request the addressee, “dear friend,” to bring a large delegation to a temperance meeting to be held at the Methodist Church. This card is dated October 29, 1909.
EPH310 Postcard “THE REAL ISSUE” The Saloon or the Boys and Girls
Saloons are Homebreakers
A flyer with two black and white photos. One of the young men and the second of young women. “Keep the saloon from them” is the statement by the young men. “They want sober homes,” is the statement by the young women. We have this marketing paper housed in a black frame with glass.
Pre-Prohibition temperance marketing used pamphlets, flyers, and posters to target alcohol consumption. The key themes in this marketing included: family destruction, economic/social costs, moral and religious arguments, scientific/health data, visual propaganda, and action-oriented message which supported local “no-license” voting initiatives.
EPH342 The Coming Home-Makers
EPH267 Renewal Notice Treasury Department
The Treasury Department, The Bureau of Internal Revenue, The Bureau of Prohibition
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms was formerly part of the United States Department of the Treasury within the Treasury Department’s Bureau of Internal Revenue. The Bureau of Prohibition was formed as a unit of the Bureau of Internal Revenue in 1920.
This notice was a renewal notice dated October 17, 1921, from the Treasury Department notifying the receiver that the “permit issued to you by the Prohibition Commissioner for the manufacture and sale of non-beverage wine, or brandy, expires on December 31, 1921. And, that the Form 1404 (enclosed), which was to make application for renewal of the permit for the year 1922, was enclosed and should be mailed to this office (San Francisco Internal Revenue Service) before October 31, 1921. (2 weeks to renew). It was signed: From E.F. Mitchell, Federal Prohibition Director.
EPH267 Renewal Notice Treasury Department
This next document is a letter from F.E. Mayhew & Co. Customs and Internal Revenue Brokers located at 810 Battery Street in San Francisco dated September 6th, 1921. It was sent “To Winemakers:” to inform them that according to Regulations No. 60, under the National Prohibition Act of October 28, 1919. This regulation required that all holders of permits issued prior to August 31, 1921, submit the formal application on Form 1401 for renewal of such permits on or before October 1st. The winemaker needed to send F.E. Mayhew & Co. the Form 1404 attached to their permit. Form 1405: Mayhew would prepare the application for renewal and forward it back to the winemaker for signature and acknowledgement.
To clarify, during the Prohibition era (1920-1933) in the United States, Form 1404 was an official application required for authorized individuals (pharmacist, manufacturers, others) to obtain a permit to use, sell, or dispense alcohol for non-beverage, medicinal, or industrial purposes. Alcohol was generally banned. However, the government provided strict regulatory forms to manage limited, legal production and distribution of medicinal liquor.
In addition, Form 1405 was a specific document used under the National Prohibition Act for the legal, non-beverage handling of alcohol, such as industrial, scientific, or medicinal, as allowed under Title 2 of the National Prohibition Act.
EPH270 Signed Letter from the Federal Prohibition Director of California
The last document is a letter from the Office of the Federal Prohibition Director, California (S.F. Rutter dated August 4, 1922. The letter is addressed to L.S. Black & Son, Box 53, Cloverdale, Calif.
The bond for $1,000 dated June 17, 1922, filed by them to the Internal Revenue Service office in San Francisco, was accepted to supersede the bond in the sum of $12,500 to cover Bonded Winery NO. 328 and that the United States Fidelity & Guaranty Company was notified of the cancellation of its bond in the sum of $12,500 as to any transaction occurring after June 17, 1922, which was the date of the superseding bond.
Original Photographs
Included here are two original black and white photographs we have in our collection from the Pre and Prohibition period. You might have seen them in one of our past articles or on our website. We are fond of the quality of the photos and what they represent. The provenance, or custodial history, is unknown and not in our records. Please feel free to contact us if you are aware of any of the historic information so that we can add to our archival records.
EPH344 Date unknown
EPH271 September 1911
TIME Magazine
TIME Magazine was first published in New York City on March 3, 1923. It was the first weekly news magazine in the United States and was originally run by Briton Hadden (1898-1929) and Henry Luce (1898-1967). It used the slogan “Take Time – It’s Brief” referring to how a “busy man could read it in an hour”. Since its first issue, TIME has had a “Milestones” section about significant events in the lives of famous people. TIME is known for the red border on its cover, introduced in 1927 (one year after this magazine was published).
EPH266 March 29, 1926 Volstead
Page 9
Page 10
Andrew John Volstead (10/31/1859-1/20/1947) is on the cover of the TIME Magazine, Volume VII, No. 13. Volstead’s wife, Nellie, was active in the women’s suffrage movement. Andrew Volstead was a Republican Representative from Minnesota elected to the Fifty-eighth and to the nine succeeding Congresses (March 4, 1903-March 3, 1923). He was the chairman of the Committee on the Judiciary (Sixty-sixth and Sixty-seventh Congresses) and introduced the National Prohibition Act. Andrew Volstead was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1922 whereby he resumed the practice of law and resided in Granite Falls, Minnesota until his death.
I have copied parts of the article verbatim so any errors in the text are from the original publication. The short article from this magazine explains his importance to the Prohibition Era in the United States. It is included here:
“It must be painful to a man to become a myth before he is dead. That great mythmaker, the public, is no respecter of persons, and least of all has it respected the person of Andrew J. Volstead, a little man of Scandinavian descent who was born in Minnesota in 1861. His father was a Norwegian immigrant who built the log cabin on the farm where Andrew was born. His mother was the daughter of a market gardener, who lived just outside Oslo, then Christiania. One way and another young Andrew completed his education at St. Olaf’s College and prepared for the bar. After a time he settled down to practice in Granite Falls, Minn. The year he arrived they made him attorney of Yellow Medicine County. He had Germans, Scandinavians, Canadians and “Americans” in his bailiwick. For 14 years part of his job was prosecuting blind-pigs, but he was not known as a drastic prohibitionist—rather as a man who “plugged” at his job. He also held the jobs of mayor, city attorney and president of the board of education. He was not a reformer, he was not a handshaker, he was not a “glad-hander,” he was not sensational in politics or in any other field. But he did have a good many friends and was well liked as a hard working, honest, kindly man. It is even understood at this late day that before prohibition he openly and quite naturally enjoyed a drink.
It came about in the natural course of events that he was elected to Congress, and served unostentatiously for nearly 20 years. For 20 years he lived mostly in Washington, with his wife. (a Scotswoman**) and Laura, his daughter. In recent years Laura has been his secretary. She is known as a very clever woman.
It so happened that in the course of 20 years, by the workings of seniority, he became chairman of the Judiciary Committee. When the resolution for the 18th Amendment was in Congress it was of course referred to the Judiciary Committee. The Committee voted for it, and Chairman Volstead, as was his duty, reported it. After the Amendment was ratified, an enforcement act had to be drafted. That again fell to the Judiciary Committee, and Mr. Volstead as its chairman drew up the act and then reported it. So his name was attached to it—and so he became famous.
But he was never a red-hot prohibitionist. He was known to be dry, just as he was known to be a bit stubborn.*** He never campaigned sensationally for prohibition; he never signed a prohibition pledge or belonged to the Prohibition party. In 1922, however, Kvale ran again as an Independent, and whether Volstead had been irreparably injured by the charge of “atheist” or whether he had simply lost his hold on Granite Falls, he was defeated.
He went back to Granite Falls and resumed his practice. Last fall he was appointed legal aid to the prohibition administrator in Minnesota. Now in the Postoffice Building in St. Paul,**** one may go up a narrow hall and into a bare, brownish room. Piles of pamphlets lie on the floor. At one end is a table desk. Behind it sits a slight, stoop-shouldered, mild man with heavy grey mustaches and a bush of grey hair, through which he has a habit of running his fingers. A gold watchchain is twisted through a buttonhole of his dark vest, and dangles a little compass at its end. His collar stands out from his spare neck.
He is very quiet and unaffected, speaks in a low quiet voice, has a twinkle in his greenish grey eyes. One can judge readily enough that he would not take a drink nowadays, not for any hypocritical reasons but because he would regard it as lawbreaking. In fact, he seems to be a likable sort, upright, not courting the limelight, not endowed with the graces that make for success in society—but likable. But of course this is not Andrew Volstead. Volstead is a myth. Volstead is a figure as noble as John Barleycorn is sinister, a powerful crusader, a tower of righteousness, a leader of a great cause—or, if you prefer, he is a bigoted little reformer, a benighted, misguided zealot.”
CR984 Flauter’s Bar Tool
This bar tool, resembling Andrew Volstead, weighs ten ounces and seems to be nickel with silver-plating. The bar tool was made in 1932, commemorating the end of Prohibition. It combines a jigger, bottle opener, corkscrew, and cocktail spoon. This tool was produced by the Weidlich Brothers in Bridgeport, Connecticut. The design patent was issued August 1932 as U.S. Design Patent No. 87,567 as a “Design for a Bottle Opener” issued to Alfred J. Flauter.
It was marketed as a “Jolly Good Mixer” and has a scowl and prudish stance on one side holding a finger up in a sign of abstinence. On the opposite side, the character has a half-smile with a cocktail being held in his hand. If you pull the top hat off, which is actually a two-ounce jigger, there is a Williamson corkscrew attached.
