Today in History: October 28
Temperance and Prohibition
We have only to look about us in this great city, to observe the traces of the deadly influence of intemperance. Everywhere, we face crime, disease and death, all testify to the necessity
of the prosecution of the cause, of steadfast and unwavering effort and prompt action
to lead to complete success.Charles C. Burleigh, Address to the Whole World's Temperance Convention,
New York City, September 1-2, 1853.
Votes for Women, 1848-1921
Unidentified Woman Holding "Sons of Temperance Offering for 1851,"
circa 1851.
America's First Look into the Camera: Daguerreotypes, 1839-1864
On October 28, 1919, Congress passed the Volstead Act providing for enforcement of the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution, ratified nine months earlier. Known as the Prohibition Amendment, it prohibited the "manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors" in the United States.
The movement to prohibit alcohol began in the early years of the nineteenth century when individuals concerned about the adverse effects of drink began forming local societies to promote temperance in consumption of alcohol. The first temperance societies were organized in New York (1808) and Massachusetts (1813). Members, many of whom belonged to Protestant evangelical denominations, frequently met in local churches. As time passed, most temperance societies began to call for complete abstinence from all alcoholic beverages.
The Anti-Saloon League, founded in Ohio in 1893 and organized as a national society in 1895, helped pave the way for passage of the Eighteenth Amendment with an effective campaign calling for prohibition at the state level. By January 1920, thirty-three states had already enacted laws prohibiting alcohol. Between 1920 and 1933, the Anti-Saloon League lobbied for strict federal enforcement of the Volstead Act.
Anti-Saloon League of America,
Sixteenth Annual Convention, Atlantic City, New Jersey, July 6-9, 1915.
Taking the Long View, 1851-1991
Organizations like the Woman's Christian Temperance Union and the World's Woman's Christian Temperance Union, founded by reformer and educator Frances Willard in 1883, mobilized thousands of women in the fight for temperance.
"I Never Knew I Had a Wonderful Wife Until the Town Went Dry,"
Words by Lew Brown.
Music by Albert Von Tilzer, 1919.
Historic American Sheet Music, 1850-1920
Willard also worked for women's suffrage, as did many other women who found their political awareness expanded by involvement in the temperance crusade. Given their political and economic vulnerability, nineteenth-century women's lives were easily devastated if the men they depended on "took to drink." Famous for attacking saloons with a hatchet, flamboyant Carrie Nation's first marriage ended when her husband drank himself to death, leaving her with a small child to support. Although few embraced Nation's extreme stance, prohibition was viewed by many as a progressive social reform that would improve and protect the lives of women and children.
The Volstead Act ultimately failed to prevent the large-scale production, importation, and sale of liquor in the United States, and the Prohibition Amendment was repealed in 1933.
- Read personal recollections of the Prohibition Era, search on prohibition in American Life Histories, 1936-1940.
U.S. Officials Destroying Liquor at the Brownsville Customs House,
December 20, 1920.
The South Texas Border: The Robert Runyon Photograph Collection - Learn a temperance song. The American Memory sheet music collections contain a wealth of songs from the temperance movement and the prohibition era, including the pathetic "Drink: A Temperance Song," the virtuous "Lips that Touch Liquor Shall Never Touch Mine," and the comical "I Never Knew I Had a Wonderful Wife Until the Town Went Dry." Search across the sheet music collections on temperance, prohibition, or drink.
- Explore African-American views on prohibition. Search the collection The African-American Experience in Ohio, 1850-1920 on temperance to read the African Methodist Episcopal Church Review on the subject of drink. Championing prohibition in 1890, the Rev. J. D. Peterson argued, "while we have temperate drinkers we shall ever be infested with drunkards, for the latter are manufactured from the former."
- Listen to "The Drunkard's Dream," "The Drunkard's Child," and "Goodbye, Booze." Search the collection California Gold: Northern California Folk Music from the Thirties on temperance and prohibition
Taken from Inventing Entertainment: the Early Motion Pictures and Sound Recordings of the Edison Companies in American Memory, these recordings from the early 1920s lampoon prohibition. "Donnie Donahue" relies on the ethnic stereotype of a drunken Irishmen, while "Save a Little Dram" features a minister complaining that his congregation is stingy with their gin.
"Donnie Donahue, on Prohibition."
An "Irish monologue,"
Performed by William Cahill,
Edison, 1921.
Real Audio Format
wav Format, 9,832 Kb
"Save a Little Dram for Me."
Written by Will Skidded and Marshall Walker,
Performed by Duke Rogers,
Edison, 1922.
Real Audio Format
wav Format, 8,968 Kb
The National Geographic Society
National Geographic Society,
Washington, D.C.,
circa 1920-1950.
Washington as It Was, 1923-1959
October 28 marks the birth date of Gilbert H. Grosvenor, the editor credited with transforming National Geographic Magazine from a small scholarly journal into a dynamic world-renowned monthly. Born at Istanbul, Turkey in 1875 and educated at Amherst College, Grosvenor joined the magazine in 1899 as an assistant editor.
Gilbert Grosvenor was recommended for the position by the president of the National Geographic Society, his future father-in-law, inventor Alexander Graham Bell. Four years after joining National Geographic, Grosvenor took over as editor-in-chief. In 1920, he was elected president of the the Society. Grosvenor filled the dual roles of editor and president until 1954, when he resigned to become chairman of the board, a position he held until his death in 1966.
The National Geographic Society was founded in Washington, D.C. in 1888 to support "the increase and diffusion of geographic knowledge." The society's founders, an eclectic group of well-traveled men, considered a magazine one means of accomplishing this mission. They published the first National Geographic nine months after forming the organization.
Detail of Family Tree of Gilbert Grosvenor and Elsie May Bell,
The Alexander Graham Bell Family Papers at the Library of Congress
In its early years, National Geographic was a plain-covered journal with a circulation of less than a thousand. Under Grosvenor's leadership, the magazine developed its extraordinary photographic service and map department and boosted circulation to 2 million. Using revenues from the magazine, the National Geographic Society has sponsored hundreds of scientific expeditions and research projects. Richly illustrated within the magazine, these explorations of land, air, and sea have introduced millions to amazing new worlds.
Notable explorations sponsored or co-sponsored by the society during Grosvenor's tenure include: Commodore Robert Peary's 1909 expedition to the North Pole; William Beebe's record-setting undersea descent in 1934; and the 1938 discovery in Alaska and the Yukon of the largest ice fields and glacial systems outside the polar regions.
Today, the National Geographic Society is the largest nonprofit scientific and educational organization of its kind. In addition to publishing its flagship magazine, the society produces a wide array of educational materials and programs. The subject of many of these is the conservation and protection of wildlife, causes long championed by Gilbert H. Grosvenor.
National Geographic Magazine, Bound Volume 54,
circa 1920-1950.
Washington as It Was, 1923-1959
- Search on Grosvenor in America's First Look into the Camera: Daguerreotypes, 1839-1864 to retrieve ten daguerreotypes of the Bell family, part of the Gilbert H. Grosvenor Collection of Photographs. Included are images of Alexander Graham Bell's wife, Mabel Hubbard, and his grandfather, Alexander Bell.
- The family tree of Gilbert Grosvenor and Elsie May Bell and photographs of the Grosvenors and their children are among several Bell family trees and numerous photographs found in the collection, The Alexander Graham Bell Family Papers at the Library of Congress. Don't miss the photograph of Bell flying a kite with his grandson, Melville Grosvenor.
- For more information about Grosvenor's father-in-law, Alexander Graham Bell, see the Today in History features on Bell's telephone and photophone inventions.
- Search the Today in History Archive on conservation to find features on subjects including:
- Learn more about the movement to conserve and protect America's natural heritage. Visit The Evolution of the Conservation Movement: 1850-1920.
