Exhibition promotional poster, 1998
Excessive drinking, once New England's secret, is now a recognized public issue. Organizations such as Alcoholics Anonymous, Mothers Against Drunk Driving, D.A.R.E., and the W.C.T.U. still work to resolve some of its problems. In Maine, increased media attention, including a series of award-winning articles in the Portland Press Herald last year, and the state's well-publicized tough drunk-driving laws also keep the issue open for examination.
Yet many Americans enjoy moderate drinking as a very pleasant part of contemporary adult life. Wine with dinner, beer at a ballgame, and champagne at a wedding are pleasures that many adults can enjoy without difficulty or overindulgence. Maine has even joined the rest of the nation as a manufacturer of local liquor, wine, and beer.
If banning the manufacture and use of alcohol was a failure nationally and statewide, one very positive change emerged from the ranks of the temperance movements—the dramatic and lasting drop in the amount of liquor Americans consumed. Mainers and their fellow Americans have never returned to the large quantities they drank before the 1830s. Armed with the education they gained from the temperance movements, they have made that decision for themselves.