The tidy New Orleans Museum of Art exhibit “Rebellious Spirits: Prohibition and Resistance in the South” is on view through January 5, 2025. To coincide with the start of Tales of the Cocktail, I wrote about it for the July 21 edition of the New Orleans Advocate | The Times-Picayune. Find the online version here.
I toured “Rebellious Spirits” with Laura Ochoa Rincon, a Decorative Arts Trust Curatorial Fellow at the museum and organizer of the exhibit (inset above; photo courtesy of the New Orleans Museum of Art). The audio of our walk-and-talk is below, with some corresponding visuals with timecodes below that. (And, below that, a nice related “extra” pointed out by NOMA Director of Marketing and Communications Charlie Tatum.)
Thanks to Laura and Charlie for their time.
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Starters
At 3:55, Ochoa Rincon discusses two display cases that contain objects predating Prohibition by a lot, describing the “Fox Hunt” punch bowl from the 1780s as one of her favorite pieces at the museum. A porcelain cherub in the next case guzzles wine. Temperance is coming.
Tools of Temperance
Continuing clockwise around the exhibit, the next case (discussion: 8:23) contains the pre-Prohibition tools of temperance – including sheet music for “The Temperance Waltz,” from 1848 (the tune, as performed by Joshua Stevenson, plays quietly in the gallery), a yellow glass pitcher (for lemonade parties), a “Temperance, Success, and Prosperity” pledge card, and a “Band of Hope” temperance ribbon from the 1880s.
Stars of the show
At 12:40, Ochoa Rincon addresses some of the stars of the show, four shiny cocktail shakers, including one with inscribed cocktail recipes, some of which are reproduced on nearby wall text. Thank you for cocktails, Prohibition! (Close-up image courtesy of the New Orleans Museum of Art.)
“Near Beer”
Don’t hesitate to use the viewing glasses to get the proper view of the leering “Near Beer” clown that Ochoa Rincon discusses at 15:24. Or do hesitate, depending on your clown issues. The 1925 stereograph is pretty weird.
Rockwell shaker
Not weird but beautiful is the 1920s Rockwell Silver Co. cocktail shaker (and martini glasses) discussed at 17:14. Shoulder balm might be necessary after a few rounds with this heavy-looking mixology tool. (Image courtesy of the New Orleans Museum of Art.)
“Libation Vase”
Learn more about the 1924 object at 19:00.
Bellocq
At 20:20, Ochoa Rincon discusses an Ernest J. Bellocq print from the Storyville era. Its silver glass negative, with backlighting on-demand, is displayed in the exhibit below the image, which depicts what appears to be a card game between two women. “It’s a really interesting take on the perceptions of womanhood and perceptions of sex work during this tumultuous period of, ‘Should this be allowed? Should this not be allowed?’” she says.
Prescriptions
On loan from the New Orleans Pharmacy Museum, the medicinal liquor prescriptions at 22:16 headline a display of Prohibition-era objects, including a Jackson Brewing Company bottle, one of several loan items in the exhibit from the Historic New Orleans Collection.
“Decree for Permanent Injunction”
At 24:39, Ochoa Rincon discusses a “Decree for Permanent Injunction” addressed to John W. Nelson and Mrs. Anna Grey Bruno from the United States of America. According to the document, their property and premises at 516 Bourbon Street were adjudged “a common nuisance” in August 1930 by a U.S. District Court in New Orleans. The charge: violating the National Prohibition Act. They received more than a dozen of these, so the party at 516 Bourbon apparently raged on despite such official scoldings.
Extra
The 1930s “Bubble” cocktail shaker and cups seen as a graphic on the title wall of “Rebellious Spirits” is part of a display of food-and-drink-related objects in Café NOMA.
Thanks for reading and maybe listening!
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