WCTU establishes the Department of Scientific Temperance Instruction in the United States

Background. The Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) was among the first organizations of women devoted to social reform, with a program that linked the religious and the secular through reform strategies based on applied Christianity. Under Frances Willard, who served as WCTU president from 1879 until her death in 1898, the union adopted Willard's "Do Everything" philosophy, which included campaigning for scientific temperance instruction in the schools among its many reform goals.

Establishment. Mary Hunt, an American activist promoting total abstinence, convinced the WCTU to transform its textbook committee into a new Department of Scientific Temperance Instruction by 1880. This development followed Hunt's 1879 address to the national convention, where she argued for thorough textbook study of scientific temperance in public schools as a preventive against intemperance.

Impact. The Department became an important part of the temperance movement, playing a significant role in generating support for the prohibition of alcohol in the United States. Its focus on educational programming aligned with the WCTU's broader goals of social reform and legislative change, including the eventual support for the Eighteenth Amendment.