It 's difficult for us to imagine now what life was like for our grandparents and great-grandparents as young working adults in pre-prohibition America.  Saloons were so prevalent that a 1894 survey of the larger US cities showed them to average one saloon for every 2,000 or so residents.  While this might suggest that alcoholism was rampant, stopping in at a saloon for a drink was much more of a social event than it was an occasion to get inebriated.  Indeed, saloons were a vital component of the social fabric that tied the communities together in pre-prohibition times.  Learning more about saloon life helps a collector understand where many of those thousands of different pre-pro shot glasses were distributed.

Saloons of the Old West, by Richard Erdoes,  1997, Random House, New York, NY.  ISBN 0-517-1873-8.  Availabilty: Out of Print, but readily available from used book dealers.

Faces Along the Bar.  Lore and Order in the Workingman's Saloon, 1870-1920, by Madelon Powers, 1998, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL.  ISBN# 0-226-67769-9.  $16,  Available at your local book store.

A very thorough and insightful academic analysis of social culture in pre-prohibition America

 

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NOTE that you can find many more books on the history of whiskey and bourbon production in the "Researching a Glass"  section of this website.