American Prohibition Museum

At 209 W Saint Julian Street in Savannah’s City Market, the American Prohibition Museum traces the temperance movement and the years when alcohol was banned in the United States, from 1920 to 1933. Exhibits combine historical objects, interactive displays and stories about bootlegging, moonshine, organized crime and the social effects of Prohibition. Follow the exhibits through to Congress Street Up, the museum’s 1920s-style speakeasy, where you can finish with a cocktail or a non-alcoholic drink. A guided tour adds a storyteller’s perspective; tickets are required.

The temperance movement and the alcohol ban

The museum follows the campaign against alcohol through to Prohibition in the United States, which lasted from 1920 to 1933. Its exhibits trace the movement’s different phases and introduce the people and ideas behind the push for a ban. Posters, pamphlets and other historical objects show how advocates made their case to the public.

The story also reaches back before the national ban. Georgia went dry in 1908, years before the country followed with the 18th Amendment. The displays connect the law to changes in American social and political life, rather than treating the period as a simple story of alcohol disappearing.

Bootlegging, moonshine and life underground

As you move through the exhibits, the focus shifts to the ways people made, moved and sold alcohol despite the ban. Stories of bootleggers, rum runners and moonshine makers sit alongside displays about organized crime and the underground bars known as speakeasies. The museum also looks at the social consequences of Prohibition and its connection to income tax.

Interactive elements and lifelike figures bring parts of the period into view. Displays about moonshine explain the illicit liquor trade, while vintage vehicles and period objects provide a sense of the material culture surrounding it. The exhibits place the rise of speakeasy culture within the wider history of the temperance movement and the alcohol ban.