Wine in the Gutters, Brooklyn
This photograph captures America’s cultural conflicts over prohibition. When the law went into effect, federal agents seized and destroyed supplies of alcohol, often dumping it in the streets. Here, working-class children in Brooklyn race to scoop it up in buckets before it drains away. In tenement neighborhoods, children eager to earn a nickel often toted buckets of beer, wine, and homemade liquor for their parents or neighbors. How might a rural temperance advocate have responded to this photograph? How about a working-class man in Chicago, Atlanta, Seattle, or New York? Picture Research Consultants & Archives.