Museum Collections

This sterling silver hip flask belonged to George Albert Zabriskie (1869-1954), a food industry executive, an officer of the United States Food Administration and Sugar Equalization boards, and, from 1939 to 1947, the Historical Society's twenty-second president. Zabriskie served as an officer of the Moderation League, one of several "wet" advocacy groups, and was actively involved in the anti-prohibition movement, of which this hip flask may have been a personal statement. Hip flasks, in fact, became a particular focus of prohibitionists, as they were perceived as symbols of public intoxication and promiscuity. In New York, the ban on hip flasks became a veritable war. In 1922 the New York Times reported, "Uncle Sam Starts War on Hip Flasks: Broadway Resorts Warned by Squad that Diners Must Not Bring Liquor In."