Lithograph advertisement, Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/resource/pga.12390/
During the 19th century, liquor was valued for more than its intoxicating results. It was often regarded as a cure for whatever ails you. An early New England folk remedy for a cold was to get in bed, put your nightcap on the bedpost and drink until you saw two nightcaps. Presumably, once you recovered from the hangover, you would feel better. During the Civil War, the wounded on the battlefield and hospital patients received liquor to dull pain and to keep patients calm.
Society’s view on liquor was not supportive. In 1813, The Massachusetts Society for the Suppression of Intemperance began. At first, members looked to limit the use of spirits, hard liquor. Over the next century, social reformers across the nation toughened their anti-alcohol stance, culminating in the 18th Amendment to the Constitution in 1920, prohibiting the manufacturing, transportation and sales of intoxicating beverages. Interestingly, doctors could prescribe liquor dispensed in pharmacies. Throughout the country as illicit drinking rates soared, rumrunners grew rich importing foreign spirits and drinkers flocked to speakeasies to imbibe. Prohibition was repealed in 1933.