CONTENT WARNING
Materials in the Library of Virginia’s collections contain historical terms, phrases, and images that are offensive to modern readers. These include demeaning and dehumanizing references to race, ethnicity, and nationality; enslaved or free status; physical and mental ability; and gender and sexual orientation.
Context
The temperance movement, or the movement to make alcohol consumption illegal, became widespread in nineteenth-century America. Since the European settlement of North America, alcohol consumption had been common. By the 1830s, Americans consumed an average of 7.1 gallons of alcohol every year. By this point, many Americans believed that alcohol was to blame for a variety of societal problems.
Supporters of the temperance movement blamed alcohol for family and social problems like poverty, domestic violence, child abuse, unemployment, and disease. People from different socioeconomic backgrounds, races, and genders joined anti-liquor organizations. Some pledged to stop personal consumption. Others sought to use moral persuasion to curb alcohol consumption. Many wanted to make the production and serving of alcohol illegal to prohibit consumption for all.
The temperance movement gave many women the opportunity to speak out in public against the dangers of alcohol. Because nineteenth-century Americans believed that women were responsible for maintaining tranquility within the home, many accepted women's outspokenness on this issue. Although women could not vote to change the laws, they sponsored public events, established rooms stacked with prohibition literature, and canvassed for the prohibition vote. Virginians joined such organizations as the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, the Anti-Saloon League, and the Sons of Temperance, all of which carried the message of total abstinence from alcohol and encouraged political support for reform using pamphlets, novels, newspapers, music, sermons, lectures, and art.
The Bottle is a series of eight illustrated panels about the potential dangers of alcohol consumption. Originally published in England in 1847 by George Cruikshank, The Bottle became wildly popular, selling more than 100,000 copies in its first few days and inspiring plays in eight London theaters at the same time. The Bottle was exported to the United States, where, lacking a copyright, it was reproduced by several publishers. Plates 1 and 6 are shown here. The first plate shows a prosperous and happy family where “The Bottle is brought out for the first time: the husband induces his wife ‘Just to take a drop." The following plates show the deleterious effects of alcohol: the father loses his job, they sell their belongings, the baby dies, the children beg in the street. In plate 6 the same family is featured. They are in the same room as the first panel, but the drunken father is attacking his wife and his children try to restrain him as a concerned neighbor bursts into the room.
Inspired by images such as these and encouraged by the rise of anti-alcohol tracts and lectures, Americans jumped on the temperance bandwagon. The Civil War swept these concerns to the side, but by the 1880s the temperance movement had spread widely. Voters in many counties and states across the nation to vote to ban alcohol, including in Virginia, which enacted a statewide ban on alcohol in 1916, four years before national Prohibition was implemented.
For Further Reading/Citations:
To see all eight panels of The Bottle, visit The UncommonWealth blog post on The Temperance Movement and the Road to Prohibition.
Bruce Bustard, "Spirited Republic," National Archives and Records Administration, https://www.archives.gov/files/publications/prologue/2014/winter/spirited.pdf.
Citation:
The Bottle, Plate V. “Cold, Misery, and Want, Destroy Their Youngest Child: They Console Themselves with the Bottle,” 1847. Lithograph by D. W. Moody after etchings by George Cruikshank. Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia.
Cruikshank, George. “The Drunkard’s Children.” London: David Bogue, Publisher, 1848. Available at British Museum Collection Online.
Standards
Art: 4.1, 5.1
Suggested Questions
Look at it: Look at the images. What do you think is the subject of the images?
Post Activities
Current Connections: How would you change or update these drawings to show the dangers of opiates or other potentially addictive substances?
Think About it: If you were a member of this family, what would, or could you have done to stop this chain of events?
Social Media Spin: Create a post in which you promote temperance for the 21st century. Include information which might sway a person to seek treatment for alcohol or drug addiction.