The Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) is an international temperance organization. It was among the first organizations of women devoted to social reform with a program that "linked the religious and the secular through concerted and far-reaching reform strategies based on applied Christianity." It plays an influential role in the temperance movement. Originating among women in the United States Prohibition movement, the organization supported the 18th Amendment and was also influential in social reform issues that came to prominence in the progressive era.
Frances Elizabeth Caroline Willard was an American educator, temperance reformer, and women's suffragist. Willard became the national president of Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) in 1879 and remained president until her death in 1898. Her influence continued in the next decades, as the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution were adopted. Willard developed the slogan "Do Everything" for the WCTU and encouraged members to engage in a broad array of social reforms by lobbying, petitioning, preaching, publishing, and education.
A drinking fountain, also called a water fountain or water bubbler, is a fountain designed to provide drinking water. It consists of a basin with either continuously running water or a tap. The drinker bends down to the stream of water and swallows water directly from the stream. Modern indoor drinking fountains may incorporate filters to remove impurities from the water and chillers to lower its temperature. Drinking fountains are usually found in public places, like schools, rest areas, libraries, and grocery stores.
Marie Caroline Brehm was an American prohibitionist, suffragist, and politician. The Head of the suffrage department for the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), she was a key figure in the Prohibition Party and Presbyterian Church, active in both local and national politics, and an advocate of reform laws. Twice she was appointed by the President to represent the United States at the World's Anti-Alcoholic Congress in Europe. Additionally, she was the first woman to run for the Vice President of the United States after the 19th amendment granted women the right to vote.
Lillian M. N. Stevens (1843–1914) was an American temperance worker and social reformer, born at Dover, Maine. She helped launch the Maine chapter of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (W.C.T.U.), served as its president, and was elected president of the National W.C.T.U. after the death of Frances Willard. Stevens also served as Editor-in-chief of the W.C.T.U.'s organ, The Union Signal.
The Frances Willard House is a historic house museum owned by the National WCTU and is a National Historic Landmark at 1730 Chicago Avenue in Evanston, Illinois. Built in 1865, it was the home of Frances Willard (1839-1898) and her family, and was the longtime headquarters of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU). Willard called the house Rest Cottage because it became a place for her to rest in between her tours and WCTU activities.
Anna Adams Gordon (1853–1931) was an American social reformer, songwriter, and, as national president of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union when the Eighteenth Amendment was adopted, a major figure in the Temperance movement.
A temperance fountain was a fountain that was set up, usually by a private benefactor, to encourage temperance, and to make abstinence from beer possible by the provision of clean, safe, and free water. The temperance societies had no real alternative as tea and coffee were too expensive, so drinking fountains were very attractive.
Annie Turner Wittenmyer was an American charitable organization leader, known for social reform, relief work, and her writing. She served as the first National President of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), seventh National President of the Woman's Relief Corps (WRC), and also served as president of the Non-Partisan National Woman's Christian Temperance Union. In 2007, Wittenmyer was inducted into the Iowa Women's Hall of Fame.
Women's Christian Temperance Union Community Building, also known as the WCTU Building, is a historic building at 160 Fayette Street in Morgantown, Monongalia County, West Virginia. It was built in 1922 by the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, and is a detached, brick, four-story plus basement structure in the Classical Revival style. It features a smooth-cut stone cornice topped by a balustrade. The interior has a two-level basement that houses a large gymnasium. The building also houses office space, meeting rooms, private apartments, and recreational facilities.
The Stephenson Grand Army of the Republic Memorial, also known as Dr. Benjamin F. Stephenson, is a public artwork in Washington, D.C. honoring Dr. Benjamin F. Stephenson, founder of the Grand Army of the Republic, a fraternal organization for Union veterans. The memorial is sited at Indiana Plaza, located at the intersection of 7th Street, Indiana Avenue, and Pennsylvania Avenue NW in the Penn Quarter neighborhood. The bronze figures were sculpted by J. Massey Rhind, a prominent 20th-century artist. Attendees at the 1909 dedication ceremony included President William Howard Taft, Senator William Warner, and hundreds of Union veterans.
Woman's Christian Temperance Union Fountain is a historic temperance fountain located at Rehoboth Beach, Sussex County, Delaware. It was erected by the Woman's Christian Temperance Union in 1929 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Delaware branch of the organization. It measures six feet tall, three feet wide, and is constructed of granite.
In the United States, the temperance movement, which sought to curb the consumption of alcohol, had a large influence on American politics and American society in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, culminating in the prohibition of alcohol, through the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, from 1920 to 1933. Today, there are organizations that continue to promote the cause of temperance.
The Woman's Christian Temperance Union Administration Building is a historic building in Evanston, Illinois, United States. It has served as the publishing house and national headquarters of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union since its construction in 1910. The organization had an important role in the national discussion on prohibition and women's suffrage.
This is a history and list of drinking fountains in the United States. A drinking fountain, also called a water fountain or bubbler, is a fountain designed to provide drinking water. It consists of a basin with either continuously running water or a tap. The drinker bends down to the stream of water and swallows water directly from the stream. Drinking water fountains are most commonly found in heavy usage areas like public amenities, schools, airports, and museums.
Mary Jane Aldrich was an American temperance reformer, lecturer, and essayist of the long nineteenth century. She served as vice-president of the National Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) and president of the Iowa union. At the time of the division in the ranks of the WCTU, Aldrich, with the Iowa union, adhered to the non-partisan temperance work, and became evangelistic secretary of the Non-Partisan National Woman's Christian Temperance Union. As a temperance worker, she was characterized as sanguine and practical. As a speaker, she was bright, forceful, entertaining and logical. She was the author of "Church and Sunday School Temperance Work" (1898).
The Union Signal is a defunct American newspaper. It was the organ of the National Woman's Christian Temperance Union, at one time, the largest women's organization in the United States.
Flora Effie Strout was an American teacher and social reformer. Early on, she taught at Lyman School for Boys in Massachusetts and then at Morgan College, where she also served as principal. As an organizer of the World's Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), she served as a foreign missionary and temperance movement worker, for three five-year periods in various parts of Asia. She was also involved in the social purity movement and was active in supporting women's suffrage. She wrote occasional articles on temperance issues and the lyrics for Morgan College's school anthem.
Temperance Temple served as the headquarters of the National Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU). It was located in Chicago, Illinois at the southwest corner of LaSalle Street and Monroe Street, in the center of city's financial district. Work was begun in July, 1890, and the building was ready for occupancy in May 1892. The lot was valued at US$1,000,000; the rentals from the building were expected to bring in an annual income of over US$200,000. The capital stock was US$600,000, one-half of which was owned by the Temple Building Association of Chicago (TBAC), and it was expected all would be secured to that association. The TBAC, a stock company with Marshall Field president of the board of trustees, owned The Temple, the third of the affiliated interests of the National WCTU. The office building was erected at a cost of US$1,200,000 on ground leased to the TBAC by Field. Temperance Temple was demolished in 1926.
Sarah A. Clark McClees was an American temperance worker, suffragist, and writer. She was superintendent of the Department of Soldiers and Sailors of the National Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU).
