Scottish Rite Masonic Museum & Library

Obediah Hervey Jones with Temperance Broadside
ca. 1850
Maker not marked
USA
a: Daguerreotype b: ink on paper
a: case, closed: 4 3/4 in x 3 3/4 in x 3/4 in; b: overall: 12 in x 10 7/8 in
Special Acquisitions Fund
88.3a-b

a: Daguerreotype (in two pieces) of a young man wearing collar of Temple of Honor Temperance Movement. Rosette with tassel on collar; leather case with gilt liner and flocked maroon velvet. Man holds sign that reads "NO / BROTHER / SHALL MAKE, BUY / SELL OR USE AS A BEVERAGE ANY / SPIRITUOUS OR / MALT LIQUORS / WINE OR CIDER. " b: Piece of paper reads "Obed Hervey Jones / in sons of Temperance / Regalia-picture taken / in the 1840's- / died March 9,1916."

In the 1830s and 1840s, many Americans worried that increasingly immoderate drinking ruined health, disrupted families and fostered irreligious behavior. To counter these social ills, men joined organizations that encouraged temperance. One of the first such American groups was the Sons of Temperance. In 1842, the group was organized in New York "to reform drunkards and to prevent others from becoming drunkards." In the daguerreotype, Obediah Hervey Jones holds a piece of paper with the group's initiation pledge. It reads "No Brother shall make, buy sell or use as a beverage any spiritous or malt liquors wine or cider." For more information, see blog post, March 19, 2009 http://nationalheritagemuseum.typepad.com/library_and_archives/2009/03/portrait-of-a-teetotaler.html