IIIF
The Tree of Temperance Item Info
- Title:
- The Tree of Temperance
- Creator:
- Currier & Ives
- Date Created:
- 1872
- Description:
- The temperance movement was gaining momentum when Currier & Ives published this lithographic print in 1872. Here, the "Tree of Temperance" spreads its branches over a scene of bucolic nineteenth-century American life: A peaceful farmyard on the right, while on the left a family makes their way to church. Physical health, prosperity, and happiness form the trunk of the tree. Its "fruit" are the myriad virtues and rewards that the temperate individual could expect to embody and receive, including love and charity, success, self respect, and even a "crown of life," meaning eternal life. The church's ornate Grecian columns echo the Classically-inspired architecture seen in many of the United States' monuments and government buildings. As a product of this historicizing ethos and of a Protestant value system, the image suggests that there is a direct correlation between spiritual, personal, familial, social, and civic wellbeing.
- Subjects:
- Temperance
- Source:
- Osher Map Library Collection
- Source Identifier:
- 54288
- Type:
- Image;StillImage
- Format:
- image/jpeg
Source
- Preferred Citation:
- "The Tree of Temperance", Osher Map Library Collection, Osher Map Library & Smith Center for Cartographic Education, University of Southern Maine
- Repository Link:
- https://oshermaps.org/map/54288.0001
Rights
- Rights:
- Public Domain
- Standardized Rights:
- https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/