A lie shattered by a Salina shell
Creator: Kansas State Temperance Union
Date: 1910
A small pamphlet on prohibition circulated by the Kansas State Temperance Union.

Anti-Saloon League materials
Date: 1917
These materials relate to the Kansas Department of the Anti-Saloon League of America. Correspondence is primarily between State Superintendent W.J. Herwig and Reverend Milo G. Kelser, field manager at the Anti-Saloon League of America headquarters in Westerville, Ohio. Correspondence is also exchanged with Reverend Julius Smith and Professor O. G. Markham of Baldwin City. Travel itineraries, legislation, and the effects of World War I are frequent topics of conversation. The group sought to organize prohibition meetings in conjunction with Sunday church services around the state. Monthly financial reports are also included.

Arthur Capper's pen
Creator: R. Esterbrook & Company
Date: 1917
Green dip pen with cork grip, manufactured by the American Pencil Company. Kansas Governor Arthur Capper used this ceremonial pen to sign the "Bone Dry Law" on February 23, 1917, effectively banning alcohol in Kansas. Passed by the Kansas legislature days prior, this law prohibited the possession of liquor by individuals within the state, and ended direct shipments of liquor from out-of-state. Kansas established multiple laws restricting or prohibiting the sale of alcohol from 1880 to 1948. The state's early and lengthy regime of Prohibition lead to some of the most restrictive alcohol laws in the nation. After signing the bill into law, Capper awarded the pen to Mrs. Lillian Mitchner, President of the Kansas Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), in recognition of her work. A resident of Beloit, Kansas, Mitchner later donated to the pen to the Kansas Historical Society.

Carry Nation's broadax
Creator: William Beatty & Son
Date: 1901
This steel broad ax was given to Carry A. Nation, a devout Christian and nationally recognized temperance advocate. Nation, a resident of Medicine Lodge, Kansas, achieved infamy for attacking saloons with a hatchet to discourage drinking and was frequently jailed for vandalism. In January 1901, Nation embarked on a highly publicized trip to Topeka, Kansas, to attend a meeting of the Kansas Temperance Union. During her trip, she assaulted multiple saloons while brandishing axes. According to Robert Scott, an employee of a Kansas Avenue hardware store, Nation entered the store during a raid on a nearby saloon and asked, "Mr. Scott, have you a hatchet I could use?" Scott provided Nation with this axe. William Beatty and Son, a long-established tool company located in Chester, Pennsylvania, produced the axe.

Carry Nation portrait
Creator: Reid, Albert Turner
Date: 1901
Pencil portrait of Carry A. Nation by Albert T. Reid (1873-1955). The title is the First Press Picture of Mrs. Nation. Nation met with Governor William Stanley at his office in the Kansas Capitol on January 29, 1901, to protest the illegal existence of joints (saloons) in the state. Reid made note of Nation's blackened right eye, which was given to her by the wife of an Enterprise jointist days earlier. Suggesting that the state's prohibition laws were not being enforced, Nation pointed to her bruise and said, "Governor, you gave me that black eye." This sketch ran on the front page of the Topeka Mail & Breeze on February 1, 1901.

Carry Nation poster
Creator: Gillin Print Company
Date: between 1901 and 1902
Large, rectangular color poster advertising an appearance by Carry Nation, a temperance advocate who gained notoriety by attacking saloons. Her activities began in Medicine Lodge, Kansas, in 1899. A hatchet was her symbol because she often used the tool to smash saloon fixtures. In Nation's autobiography, The Use and Need of the Life of Carry A. Nation, she explained the genesis of this poster. While jailed in Topeka for smashing saloon fixtures in July 1901, Nation received a letter from James Furlong, manager of the Lyceum Theater in Rochester, New York. According to Nation, Furlong offered to bail her out of jail if she granted him some lecture dates. She agreed, was pardoned, and left almost immediately for a Chautauqua in Clarksburg, Ohio. Her lecture series continued across upstate New York.

City Liquor Ordinance
Creator: Kansas State Temperance Union
Date: Unknown
A city liquor ordinance comprised of 14 sections making it "unlawful for any person to sell or barter any spirituous, mault, vinous, fermented or other intoxicating liquor." This copy is written for Saline County but was most likely used as a template for prohibition across the state of Kansas.

Do you believe in temperance, prohibition, and the enforcement of the law?
Creator: Gillies Printing Company
Date: 1898
A poster announcing the Annual Convention of the Kansas State Temperance Union at Hamilton Hall in Topeka, Kansas. The convention featured speeches, business sessions, and committee reports.

Governor John St. John prohibition received correspondence
Creator: Kansas. Governor (1879-1883 : St. John)
Date: January 1879-December 1882
Republican politician John St. John complied this series of correspondence on temperance and prohibition issues from letters received while governor of Kansas from 1879-1882. The correspondence includes letters supporting and opposing the prohibition of liquor, petitions of civic organizations, newspaper articles, and various other forms. St. John persuaded the Kansas Legislature to pass a constitutional amendment for prohibition that voters approved in 1880. In 1881, the legislature passed the Prohibitory Law making Kansas the first state to prohibit alcohol under its constitution. The national Prohibition Party nominated St. John for President of the United States in 1884. A transcription of this collection is not yet available. This collection includes all prohibition correspondence from boxes 19-24 of the John St. John Governor's Papers. An inventory of the entire St. John collection is included as a link below.

It is coming! It is coming! An old-fashioned sweeping temerance revival
Creator: State Temperance Union
Date: 1902
This poster publicizes an approaching temperance revival. The document lists what prohibition accomplishes for Kansas and what the State Temperance Union wants to achieve for the year 1903.

Kansas State Temperance Union blanks for enforcement
Creator: Kansas State Temperance Union
Date: Between 1900 and 1910
A booklet of blank forms, sent out by the Kansas Temperance Union, that was to be filled out in the hopes of closing down establishments that sell liquor.

Kansas State Temperance Union expense journals
Creator: Kansas State Temperance Union
Date: 1898-1911
This collection consists of 7 volumes of records from the Kansas State Temperance Union. The first volume lists the members and the dues they paid by local organization. The index lists the communities that have members listed and these communities have been included in the categories. Note: other communities are listed elsewhere in the records, particularly the speaker expenses volume. The second volume is the cash book (expense journal) for the years 1901-1904. Volumes three through five are the cash books for 1907-1910, 1909-1910, and 1910-1911. Volume 6 contains speaker expenses and contribution from the communities where they spoke, listed by name of speaker. Several speakers are listed. Volume 7 is an expense journal for 1907-1911. There are also some loose papers inserted into the volumes, mostly correspondence and form letters.

Kansas State Temperance Union legal documents
Date: 1907-1908
This bound volume contains affidavits, warrants, and legal briefs naming the State of Kansas as plaintiff for cases pertaining to the sale of alcohol. The Kansas State Temperance Union actively prosecuted the "unlawful and illegal sales of intoxicating liquors." Although Kansas was the first state to adopt a constitutional amendment prohibiting the sale of intoxicating liquors, the law was largely unenforced. This volume includes accusations that Daniel Read Anthony, Jr. knowingly allowed the sale of alcohol to occur on his property. Kansas Attorney General F. S. Jackson is frequently mentioned throughout the volume. Due to water damage, some text is illegible or difficult to read.

Kansas State Temperance Union minutes
Creator: Kansas State Temperance Union
Date: 1883-1898
This bound volume contains the meeting minutes of the Kansas State Temperance Union beginning with the annual convention on January 9, 1883, in Topeka. Executive meeting minutes, committee appointments, resolutions, and reports from secretary Frederick Oliver Popenoe are also included. Clippings of printed material and newspapers have been pasted onto several pages.

Kansas State Temperance Union receipts and disbursements
Creator: Kansas State Temperance Union
Date: 1906
Listing of receipts and disbursements of the Kansas State Temperance Union, divided by month and signed by financial manager S. H. Pitcher. Expenses include salaries, rent, postage, stationary, and lecturers.

Kansas prohibitory law enforcement bulletin
Creator: Kansas State Temperance Union
Date: 1904
A law enforcement bulletin that contains articles on the prohibitory law and how to enforce it; the C.O.D. Express Business; the then recent decisions of the Supreme Court; Constitution of Civic Leagues; Lincoln Legion Total Abstinence Campaign; and a complete list of U.S. Government liquor tax receipt holders.

Prohibition in Kansas. Facts not opinions
Creator: Kansas State Temperance Union
Date: 1890
A pamphlet on prohibition in Kansas that lists the comparison of twenty-five cities, their population, number of saloons, and number of arrests. Also contains chapters on material prosperity in Kansas and Nebraska, crime and pauperism in Kansas, and the general results of prohibition.

Prohibition in Kansas. The result of twenty months of its operation
Creator: Troutman, James A.
Date: Between 1881 and 1883
The results of twenty months of prohibition in Kansas, written by James A. Troutman, Topeka, Secretary of the Kansas State Temperance Union.

Resolution to retain the anti-cigarette law
Creator: Kansas Branch National Congress of Mothers and Parent-Teachers Association
Date: January 13, 1923
A 1923 resolution to retain the present anti-cigarette law by the Kansas branch of the National Congress of Mothers and Parent-Teachers Association. The anti-cigarette law was passed in 1889 prohibiting anyone to sell, give, or buy cigarettes for individuals under the age of 16. Following WWI, public opinion about cigarette smoking had changed and the law was repealed in 1927.

Temperance Legislation
Creator: Kansas. Governor (1915-1919: Capper)
Date: January 15, 1915
This file includes general correspondence relating to the Temperance Legislation. The Temperance movement is a social movement prohibiting the consumption of alcohol. This is part of a bigger collection of Governor Arthur Capper correspondence.

Temperance history correspondence
Date: 1907
Correspondence sent and received by Rev. Robert Norris, secretary of the Kansas State Temperance Union, and Julian K. Codding, attorney for the Kansas State Temperance Union. Correspondents include Elizabeth P. Hutchinson and Minnie Wood, presidents of the Kansas Woman's Christian Temperance Union, Rev. J. M. Dunlavy, president of the Crawford County Civil League and Third Congressional District of the KSTU, Rev. J. W. Primrose, superintendent of the Second Congressional District of the KSTU in Fort Scott, John Wiswell, chairman of the Cherokee County Law Enforcement Aid Committee, and representatives from the Anti-Saloon League of America. Much of the correspondence concerns efforts to advance anti-liquor agendas in local, state, and national politics. Although Kansas was the first state to adopt a constitutional amendment prohibiting the sale of intoxicating liquors in 1880, the law was largely unenforced.

Temperance history correspondence
Date: 1911-1912
This correspondence was sent and received by Frank M. Stahl, superintendent of the Kansas State Temperance Union. A letter from James K. Shields, state superintendent for the Anti-Saloon League of Illinois, asks for Stahl's assistance in recruiting Governor Walter R. Stubbs for a temperance rally in Springfield, Illinois, in opposition to the "United Societies boozers of Chicago." A letter from J. F. Baker, legislative superintendent for the Wisconsin Anti-Saloon League seeks information about prohibitory zones around Kansas universities as the state of Wisconsin attempts to exclude saloons from the college town of Madison. Correspondence with W. H. Edmundson and E. D. Mikesell, attorneys in Fredonia, regards the selling and prosecution of "Belgian Beer" which supposedly contained one-half of one percent of alcohol and was sold by children at lemonade stands. Stahl responded that "the internal revenue collectors have rather overstepped their duties." Although Kansas was the first state to adopt a constitutional amendment prohibiting the sale of intoxicating liquors in 1880, the law was largely unenforced.

Temperance history correspondence
Date: 1909
Correspondence relating to the Kansas State Temperance Union and its activities promoting the enforcement of prohibition in the state of Kansas. Frank M. Stahl served as superintendent and John Marshall served as attorney. They wrote a number of the letters contained in this collection. Leaders of the temperance movement frequently corresponded with county attorneys, civic leaders, ministers, and pastors. Included are several letters supporting James A. Lyons of Langdon, Kansas, who was charged with selling intoxicating liquors, and a circular announcing the guilty verdict in the case of Assistant Attorney General C. W. Trickett of Wyandotte County, Kansas, who accepted illegal fees in the prosecution of liquor cases. The collection contains correspondence from numerous Kansas communities.

Temperance history correspondence
Date: 1906
This is correspondence sent and received by members of the Kansas State Temperance Union, including Robert Norris, secretary Topeka, Kansas;, John Marshall, attorney, Ellsworth, Kansas; and Julian K. Codding, attorney, Wamego, Kansas. A letter from H. C. Ericsson, sheriff of Wabaunsee County, lists the names of several individuals that have been "seen drinking." Frequent letters are exchanged with George H. Stuessi, an attorney in Pittsburg, Kansas, regarding legal cases involving alcohol in Girard, Kansas. Although Kansas was the first state to adopt a constitutional amendment prohibiting the sale of intoxicating liquors in 1880, the law was largely unenforced.

Temperance history correspondence
Date: 1905
Correspondence sent and received by members of the Kansas State Temperance Union, primarily Rev. W. L. Dexter, secretary, Robert Norris, secretary, Julian K. Codding, lawyer, and William T. Jones, solicitor. Correspondents include Elizabeth P. Hutchinson, president of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, Rev. Purley A. Baker, superintendent of the American Anti-Saloon League, Mary Evelyn Dobbs, Rev. Charles W. Whorrall, and William H. McCamish, assistant attorney general of Wyandotte County. Included in this correspondence are several signed petitions to members of the U.S. Senate from citizens in Arkansas City, Kirwin, and Abilene asking them to vote against the Hamilton Bill which they argue "would annul the solemn pledge of the Government to protect the Indians against the introduction and sale of intoxicants in the Indian territory." Some financial records are also included, such as a report from the finance committee for the previous year, ending February 15, 1905, and receipts and disbursements by month, signed by financial manager S. H. Pitcher. Although Kansas was the first state to adopt a constitutional amendment prohibiting the sale of intoxicating liquors in 1880, the law was largely unenforced.