Rochester Historical Society Collection. Gift of Mary & Joe Koval.
Fundraiser by members of the Rochester Independent Order of Good Templars,
a temperance organization, about 1900.
Quilts were part of the widespread temperance movement's fundraising and consciousness raising efforts. A few quilts and accounts....
Missouri
The Women's Christian Temperance Union was the largest of
the organizations.
WCTU quilt with names from Liverpool, Ohio
1909 Harper, Kansas
The W.C.T.U. encouraged fundraising quilts covered with names. One paid a dime or more to have one's name embroidered on the piece, which then might be raffled to raise more money.
Two New York quilts
Raffles were an affront to antigambling sensibilities but they went on despite
laws prohibiting any kind of gambling. (I believe still on the books in Kansas.)
1901
The Water Glass, a temperance symbol
Tennessee State Museum Collection
Chester, Pennsylvanians with a WCTU quilt. The white ribbon
in the center was one of the group's symbols.
New York project & the Quilt Index. West Groton, New York
UPDATE: Louise sent a 1903 reference to raising $ with quilts. Same design but in red.
It's a good time to recall the WCTU and its goal of prohibiting alcohol in the U.S. They succeeded in their crusade only to watch Prohibition encourage a new attitude that increased acceptance of drinking alcohol with new cocktail recipes to hide the taste of bootleg liquor.
Post-prohibition bar with my mother and Aunt having a
Manhattan with the boys. Their generation learned to drink
during Prohibition.
Collection of the New York State Museum
Protestant religious sentiments in a WCTU quilt
made in Schenectedy in 1904.