“Men are divided into three classes. There are men who love their liquor, men who sell liquor, and politicians who are on both sides of the question.”

Before Prohibition, a number of liquor merchants operated in the District of Columbia. This was a time when intoxicating beverages were at the forefront of the national conversation and the District, being subject only to laws passed by Congress, served as a testing ground for regulation. Learn the stories of the Poison Squad, Lemonade Lucy, the Sons of Temperance, and the sad tale of Senators baseball star Ed Delahanty. On the political front, read a blow-by-blow account of the decade long whiskey war, which involved every branch of the federal government as it sought to answer the question, “What is whiskey?”

Local author and whiskey producer Troy Hughes provides a glimpse into Washington whiskey culture and the businesses of producers at the turn of the twentieth century.