VIRGINIA BEACH — Planning on having an alcoholic drink tonight? A century ago, you wouldn’t have been able to in Virginia.
Virginians sipped their last legal cocktails on Halloween in 1916 before being launched into an 18-year prohibition on alcohol, which became national legislation three years later, according to a Virginia Beach Museums news release.
Now, the Francis Land House will host a new exhibit, “Teetotalers & Moonshiners: Prohibition in Virginia, Distilled,” which will feature artifacts from the Library of Virginia to educate residents about prohibition history in the state and the nation.
The exhibit will feature newspapers sporting stories that were both for and against prohibition, sheet music that mocked the legislation, records from the state’s prohibition commission and a digital exhibit that will showcase the stories of those enforcing the laws, as well as those breaking them, according to the news release.
“Many farmers worried that a major part of their livelihood from corn and fruit had disappeared overnight, while supporters of prohibition exulted the promise of a morally upright ‘Dry Virginia,'” the news release states. “For the next 18 years, the state became a laboratory for a grand social experiment that ultimately left many Virginians with a serious hangover — and eventually led to repeal.”
Supported in part by the Virginia Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control and the National Alcoholic Beverage Control Association, the exhibit will run at the Francis Land House from Nov. 16 until Dec. 17.
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