Our Spirited Ancestors: The Decorative Art of Drink

Early Southerners drank a lot — nearly twenty gallons of alcohol each — every year. They drank when they woke up in the morning, as they ate and worked during the day, and when they socialized at night. But how people drank was as important as what they drank. From imported Madeira sipped at mahogany tables to local whisky out of redware jugs, this exhibit explores the decorative arts that defined the early Southern drinker.

This exhibition was on view at MESDA from October 2011 through September 2012.