Primary Sources: Social Reform & Activism: Temperance

by Frances Willard
President, Woman's Christian Temperance Union
October, 1893

"The digitized items in the Alcohol, Temperance and Prohibition Collection are from the Alcoholism and Addiction Studies Collection, as well as from various collections in the Brown University Library — broadsides, sheet music, pamphlets and government publications."

Website for the self help organization.

Part of the website Uncle Tom's Cabin & American Culture

"From 1893 to 1933, the Anti-Saloon League was a major force in American politics. Influencing the United States through the printed word and lobbying, it turned a moral crusade into a Constitutional amendment. The League left a legacy of printed material at a site bequeathed to the Westerville Public Library which houses the Anti-Saloon League Museum."
The library has made selected materials available online.

Documents from the Wisconsin Historical Society

An online exhibit providing access to a variety of primary source materials related to the changing American culture in the early 1900s. The site was created by The Ohio State University Harvey Goldberg Center for Excellence in Teaching in the Department of History.

A listing of online books by National Temperance Society and Publication House provided by The Online Books Page

Ohio State Monitor 02, no. 38 (03/06/1920): 04

This site from Ohio State University provides background information as well as some primary source materials.

"Not merely a political debate, temperance permeated American culture through tracts, dramas, songs, and illustrations that presented stories of liquor-induced fall and redemption, not to mention the temperance conventions and parades that took place in many cities and towns. Barnum, a staunch temperance advocate, promoted the cause of sobriety at the American Museum in a variety of ways. Beginning in 1849, he drew large audiences to the Lecture Room with The Drunkard, or The Fallen Saved, a pro-temperance moral melodrama. Barnum also served free ice water on every floor of the Museum, employed plainclothes detectives to eject patrons "whose actions indicated loose habits," and forced male Lecture Room audience members who spent intermission at a nearby saloon (a long-standing theatrical tradition) to pay a second admission fee when they returned for the second act."

"Papers including correspondence, circular letters, accounts, minutes, reports, speeches, printed matter and newspaper clippings relating to the campaign for prohibition in Virginia. Includes correspondence with members of anti-saloon leagues in other states and the Woman's National Christian Temperance Union. "

"The lesson relates to the power of Congress to amend the Constitution as specified in Article V, and also relates to Amendment 18, which banned alcohol, and to Amendment 21 which repealed national Prohibition. It offers 9 documents as primary sources, including photographs, the 18th and 21st Amendments, the Volstead Act, memos and letters, and the Presidential Proclamation 2065 of December 5, 1933. Appended are a written document analysis worksheet, a cartoon analysis worksheet, and the primary source documents. "

"Contains correspondence, press releases, speeches, and reports. Material documents Anderson's work with the Anti-Saloon League and the League's relations with John D. Rockefeller and the Black Belt Farms Company. Correspondents include Charles S. Whitman, two-time governor of New York. This finding aid includes links to digital images of all or part of the collection. "

"Among the social movements joined and led by women in the late 19th century, including unionization and women’s suffrage, none had either the widespread fervor or success enjoyed by the temperance movement. The Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), founded in 1873, drew widespread support from labor movements such as the Knights of Labor by linking the fight against liquor with the desire to protect home and family against the ravages of the new industrial order. Frances Willard was one of the leaders of the WCTU who vocally sought the alliance of the temperance movement with Labor. In this selection from her autobiography Glimpses of Fifty Years, Willard described the WCTU’s most widely known tactic, the praying-in-saloons crusade. "