Temperance & Bootlegging: A Nation Under Prohibition Glass Flasks and Bottles

by Jessica Cosmas, Collections Specialist

Prior to the Temperance Movement gaining popularity in the late nineteenth century, the production and consumption of alcoholic beverages were unchallenged pillars of American economic and social development. Scores of glass flasks and bottles recovered from the River Bridge site on the Pasquotank River attest to an established drinking culture from colonial era through the antebellum period in northeast North Carolina. In addition to the objects on view at the second-floor gallery, a new selection of River Bridge glass may be seen in the Temperance display in the first-floor hallway case.

MOLD-BLOWN GLASS FLASK WITH MARITIME DESIGN, 1800-1850