Carrie A. Nation Pin, 1905
name: label: associated organization
content: Woman's Christian Temperance Union
notes: label: Description
content: By her own account, temperance reformer Carry A. Nation used rocks, a sledgehammer borrowed from a blacksmith, and a bar room billiard ball to destroy five Kansas saloons—before she took up a hatchet to destroy a Wichita, Kansas, saloon on December 27, 1900. Saloons were illegal under Kansas state law, but tolerated by officials. Explaining her choice of weapon, Nation recalled that the state’s “liquor interests” had nothing to fear from the usual temperance advocates, “but they were not prepared for a furious woman and a hatchet.” Her saloon smashings became known as “hatchetations”—a play on words coined by the publicity-savvy Nation.
label: Description
content: A Topeka, Kansas, druggist supplied Nation with little pewter hatchets to sell to cover her legal fines and travel expenses. Nation found that the public clamored for her hatchet souvenirs and readily grasped the meaning of them.
topic: label: general subject association
content: Women's History
label: general subject association
content: Temperance
label: general subject association
content: Prohibition
label: general subject association
content: Temperance
setName: label: See more items in
content: Political History: Political History, Womens History/Reform Movements Collection
label: See more items in
content: Government, Politics, and Reform
label: See more items in
content: American Democracy: A Great Leap of Faith
label: Exhibition
content: American Democracy
label: Exhibition Location
content: National Museum of American History
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Clay F. Gaumer
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: PL.160750
label: accession number
content: 160750
label: catalog number
content: 42424
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Pin
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: metal (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: mother of pearl (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 2 in x 1 in; 5.08 cm x 2.54 cm