Temperance and Prohibition Movement, 1830-1933 (Module 56)
The Temperance and Prohibition Movement in the United States was one of the most powerful and influential forces for social reform during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Attracting wide public support through several important organizations, temperance leaders eventually succeeded in placing a national prohibition amendment in the Constitution. The Eighteenth Amendment marked the ultimate triumph of the temperance and prohibition movement, but it was a victory which failed to achieve anticipated results. National prohibition in the end discredited the cause of temperance in the minds of many Americans. Yet the temperance and prohibition movement had held a prominent place among social reform causes during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This module contains records and publications of the principal organizations which sought to reduce and ultimately to eliminate the manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages in the United States. The two largest organizational collections in the module are the Anti-Saloon League of America (A.S.L.A.) and the records of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (W.C.T.U.) The papers of individuals prominent in the movement are included as well. The files of Ernest H. Cherrington comprise the largest collection. The W.C.T.U. collection contains important correspondence and writings of Frances E. Willard. The Anti-Saloon League Office of General Counsel and Legislative Superintendent series contains important papers of Wayne B. Wheeler, and papers of Mary H. Hunt and Cora F. Stoddard are included in the Scientific Temperance Federation series. To supplement the manuscript material filmed, several periodicals have been included. The American Issue, chief publication of the Anti-Saloon League of America, and the Union Signal, official publication of the W.C.T.U., provide an important published record of the activities and mission of their respective organizations.