In partnership with the National Archives, Derek Brown, the first-ever "Chief Spirits Advisor" to the Archives, has developed a new History of the Cocktail seminar series to discuss the role of spirits in U.S. history. In this ten-part series, some of the top writers, bartenders, spirit-makers, and thinkers in spirits and cocktails will discuss various eras in the history of the cocktail, shedding light on our Spirited Republic. 

The Lost Generation: Prohibition and Its Aftermath
Jim Meehan,  Bridget Albert, Ted Haigh
Moderator: Garrett Peck, Author “Prohibition in Washington, D.C.: How Dry We Weren’t” & “The Prohibition Hangover: Alcohol in America from Demon Rum to Cult Cabernet”

Prohibition remains one of the most influential and critical times in American drinking. Though professional bartending and the transportation of alcohol were made illegal, the offshoot—the speakeasy—became ubiquitous and the demographic of bars shifts from men to younger, mixed crowds. Trained bartenders either worked illegally or traveled to Europe or Latin America, where they could still legally serve alcohol, sometimes to other American expats. The implications for the cocktail were that, although it lost many of its trained professionals, it found a new life and audience abroad.

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