A woman smiles while holding bottles of various types of alcohol, including peach brandy, port wine, gin, absinthe, and forbidden fruit.

Whiskey, Women, and Work

Prohibition—and its newly created underground economy—changed the way women lived, worked, and socialized.
Women moonshiners bootleggers

How Prohibition Encouraged Women to Drink

During Prohibition, American women “made, sold, and drank liquor in unprecedented fashion,” writes historian Mary Murphy.
Moonshine still

The Caves in Which Moonshine Was Made

White County, TN, averaged more than a million and a half gallons of moonshine a year at late as the 1950s.
Pisco punch

The Lost (and Found) Classic Cocktail of San Francisco

The legend of Pisco punch did not die with its creator, Duncan Nicol.
Thompson's Temperance Spa

When the Temperance Movement Opened Saloons

Charles Sumner Eaton's “Temperance Spa” served alternative adult beverages like coffee, egg phosphates, and "Moxie Nerve Food," all in the name of health.
Green Dragon Tavern

A Brief History of US Drinking

In 1770, the average colonial Americans consumed about three and a half gallons of alcohol per year, about double the modern rate.
Susan B. Anthony dollar coin

The Feminist History of Prohibition

A look at the feminist roots of the temperance movement.
Men and women drinking beer at a pre-prohibition bar in Raceland, Louisiana, September 1938.

The Darker Side of Prohibition

During Prohibition, industrial-grade alcohol cost hundreds of American lives. The Coolidge administration encouraged its circulation.
Rows of marijuana plants

Legalizing Marijuana: Lessons from the Post-prohibition Era

The country's experience regulating alcohol after Prohibition may provide lessons regarding marijuana.