Curiosity Cafe: Uncorking the Women’s Christian Temperance Union

Lunchtime Curiosity Cafe

Second Wednesday of the month from 12-1pm

at the Evanston History Center, 225 Greenwood St.

FREE, no RSVP needed.

Come to the Dawes House for coffee, lunch, and informal conversation around a variety of unique Evanston History topics. Feel free to bring a brown bag lunch; coffee and tea will be provided.

October’s topic is: Uncorking the Women’s Christian Temperance Union

Curious about that modest, historic-landmarked Victorian home at 1730 Chicago Avenue? Did you know that it was once the busy center of a global woman’s reform organization, the largest of its time?

Yes- it’s the former HQ of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU). The WCTU’s wide scope stretched well beyond anti-alcohol activism, and well beyond the U.S. It included many areas of social reform (woman suffrage, prison reform, health education, pure food and drug laws) aimed at empowering women to gain more control over their lives and their families’ wellbeing.

While Evanstonians may be familiar with some of the facts and legends about Frances Willard and the WCTU, this Curiosity Café will explore some aspects of the WCTU that
make it of interest to us today. It is inspired by a new book, “The White Ribbon Army Reconsidered: The WCTU after 150 years” (University Press of Kansas) that addresses different aspects of the WCTU’s work and examines the organization’s complexities and contradictions.

Presenter Janet Olson, a co-editor of the new book, is retired Assistant University Archivist at
Northwestern, and currently a volunteer in the Evanston History Center’s Research Room.