Description
This 1868 certificate of membership in IOGT—a temperance league known variously as the Independent Order of Good Templars, the International Organization of Good Templars, and the International Order of Good Templars—includes a series of vignettes showing the evils of drink and the joy of sobriety. Moving clockwise from the oval illustration at bottom, just above the open bible, a man is portrayed taking his first drink, which leads to a second one, gambling, and eventually Poverty & Delirium. After signing a sobriety pledge, the man is shown enjoying his family in a scene titled Prosperity & Happy Home.
