Introduction

The temperance movement was the longest-lasting and most broad-based social reform movement in the United States. It was also, in many ways, successful: by the late 19th century, in the decades before Prohibition, the drinking habits of Americans were radically changed. Activism in the movement crossed gender, race, class, religion, and age barriers, and was connected to both the antislavery and woman suffrage reforms. This exhibition traces the temperance movement’s development from moral persuasion to legal coercion, from Dr. Benjamin Rush’s moral thermometer in the late 18th century to the formation of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union in the late 19th. *NOTE: pass your mouse over the "Devil Dog" throughout the virtual exhibition for some pieces of temperance trivia. This may only be possible for those using Internet Explorer.

Frontispiece. "In the Monster's Clutches." T.S. Arthur.
Grappling with the Monster, or the Curse and the Cure of Strong Drink.
New York: John W. Lovell Company, 1877.

Exhibit Tour

The Library Company of Philadelphia, 1314 Locust Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19107 (215) 546-3181