Photograph shows men of Smith's Company of the Texas Rangers posed behind barrels of confiscated bootleg liquor. Nov. 9, 1922 near Tyler, Texas. (UTSA Libraries Special Digital Collections)
Prohibition outlawed the manufacture, sale and transportation of alcohol from 1919 to 1933, but that didn’t stop Texans from imbibing during those dry years.
The University of Texas at San Antonio Libraries Special Digital Collection has photographs, some dating back 100 years, to the time when alcohol was outlawed.
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According to the Texas State Historical Association, prohibition was controversial nationally but also for Texans. Opponents of the liquor ban took control of the Texas government in 1925 and refused to support enforcing prohibition laws.
Support for prohibition plummeted during the Great Depression in 1929 and Texans ratified a repeal of the state dry law in 1935.
So what did anti-prohibition activists look like and what was done to prevent bootlegging in Texas? Take a look at the photos below to see some of the history behind prohibition in the Lone Star State:
Photograph shows a large group of men and a few boys, standing and sitting in two rows; one man holds a beer barrel over his head. The setting is outdoors, in front of trees. July 30, 1911. (UTSA Libraries Special Digital Collections)Photograph shows Texas Rangers arresting the moonshiners outside small building at edge of oilfield. Derricks in background. Circa 1922. (UTSA Libraries Special Digital Collections)Photograph shows a Texas Ranger standing behind three bootlegging stills confiscated by the rangers. Circa 1925. (UTSA Libraries Special Digital Collections)Photograph shows agents with confiscated distilling apparatus after a raid. Shed in background. Circa 1920-1929. (UTSA Libraries Special Digital Collections)Texas Rangers who were involved in a tequila confiscation, Duval County, Texas on Nov. 22, 1921. Photograph shows Texas Rangers on horseback with confiscated tequila in skins loaded onto mules. Caliche block (sillar) structure in background (UTSA Libraries Special Digital Collections)Photograph shows Texas Rangers standing behind the moonshiners and their equipment circa 1922. (UTSA Libraries Special Digital Collections)Photograph shows a group of Texas Rangers and others standing next to tables on which the confiscated items are displayed. Frank Hamer is among the group. Texas Rangers with gambling equipment and moonshine that they confiscated in raid circa 1922. (UTSA Libraries Special Digital Collections)Photograph shows men of Smith's Company of the Texas Rangers posed behind barrels of confiscated bootleg liquor. Nov. 9, 1922 near Tyler, Texas. (UTSA Libraries Special Digital Collections)Photograph shows two unidentified smugglers. Behind them, tequila in skin bags on a mule. Circa 1925. (UTSA Libraries Special Digital Collections)
