Black Valley Railroad
date: label: Date made
content: 1863
name: label: copyright holder
content: Hanks, S. W.
label: Maker
content: unknown
notes: label: Description
content: This hand-colored allegorical print depicts the course of destruction through drinking in a series of symbols. It was designed to impress the dangers of drinking alcohol. A train labeled "Alcohol" is stopped at "Drunkard's Curve Station." It has left a tranquil valley and is heading toward doom in a land of evil serpents (as in Eden), skeletons, a vampire bat, and what appears to be a dangerous route to destruction, with fictional station names like "Horrorland," "Maniacville", "Prisonton" and “Woeland." The train runs on grain alcohol with the piston working in a decanter. Numerous travelers who can no longer pay the fare are lying abandoned, sick, or passed out along the side of the tracks, while others appear to be looking for ways to escape. Station names bear a cautionary tale of scriptural citations along the left and right borders and below the image is a considerable amount of interpretive text.
label: Description
content: The print was issued by the Massachusetts Temperance Alliance, engraved by Nathaniel Rudd of Boston, and published by Reverend Steadman Wright Hanks in his book <i>The Crystal River Turned Upon the Black Valley Railroad and Black Valley Country -- A Temperance Allegory</i> (also known as <i>The Black Valley: The Railroad and the Country)</i>. Hanks called the print "probably the most successful temperance lecture in the country." Stedman Wright Hanks (1811-1889) was a Congregational minister in Lowell, Massachusetts, as well as an author, artist, and fervent supporter of both the temperance and anti-slavery movements. Hanks spoke to audiences around the United States about the evils of overindulging in alcohol. In addition to his book about the Black Valley Railroad, his published works included <i>Sailor Boys, or, Light on the Sea</i>and <i>Mutineers of the "Bounty</i> and compiled a temperance song book and served as a representative in the Massachusetts General Court. He is also noted for performing the sermon commemorating John Quincy Adams death at the St. John Street Congregational Church.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: Massachusetts, Boston
topic: label: Subject
content: Carriages
label: Subject
content: Architecture, Industrial Buildings
label: Subject
content: Railroads
label: referenced
content: Temperance
setName: label: See more items in
content: Home and Community Life: Domestic Life
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content: Temperance Movement
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content: Art
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content: Domestic Furnishings
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Harry T. Peters "America on Stone" Lithography Collection
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: DL.60.2885
label: catalog number
content: 60.2885
label: accession number
content: 228146
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Lithograph
label: Object Type
content: Lithograph
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: image: 9 5/8 in x 12 5/8 in; 24.4475 cm x 32.0675 cm