Untitled [Michigan County temperance map]
- Title:
- Untitled [Michigan County temperance map]
- Alternate Title:
- [Michigan County temperance map]
- Collection:
- Persuasive Maps: PJ Mode Collection
- Creator:
- Genesee County [Michigan] Local Option League
- Date:
- 1910
- Posted Date:
- 2024-04-25
- ID Number:
- 2525.01
- File Name:
- PJM_2525_01.jpg
- Style/Period:
- 1900 - 1919
- Subject:
- Politics & Government
Alcohol - Measurement:
- 14 x 9 card (centimeters, height x width)
- Notes:
- This postcard map was created by the Genesee County (Michigan) Local Option League to encourage the voters of that county to maintain prohibition in the face of an expected election referendum. The 40 counties shown in white were "dry" at the time, and the remaining 28 black ones "wet." The legend asks "What has Genesee to gain by the return of the saloon?" The temperance movement, and to an even greater extent the woman's suffrage movement, made extensive use of maps of this sort at the time to convey the sense of spreading success and urge voters to join the progress. See Notes for ID #1193. For other such maps, Search > "Suffrage" and "Temperance."
The cancellation on the verso of this card dates it to 1910. Michigan at the turn of the 20th century was a center of prohibition activity. Carrie Nation, the legendary, hatchet-wielding icon of temperance, had visited Ann Arbor in 1902. In 1908, she returned to the state, beginning with a tour of Detroit saloons, which she proclaimed "a gilded hell." Several days later, she went to the small farm town of Holly - just 15 miles from Flint in Genesee County - where she found the Governor campaigning and confronted him for failing to enforce the state's liquor laws. After he fled to avoid her and her supporters, they invaded the Holly Hotel and reportedly attacked the Hotel's bar, clubbing patrons with their umbrellas while Nation destroyed liquor bottles with her ax, resulting in her arrest and jailing. Whether or not the details of what happened in Holly can be confirmed, there is little doubt as to the depth of temperance forces in that area at the time. See Lyons 2017.
Cornell University Library is pleased to present this digital collection of Persuasive Maps, the originals of which have been collected and described by the private collector PJ Mode. The descriptive information in the “Collector’s Notes” has been supplied by Mr. Mode and does not necessarily reflect the views of Cornell University. - Format:
- Image
- Rights:
- For important information about copyright and use, see http://persuasivemaps.library.cornell.edu/copyright.