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Phil Douglis | all galleries >> Galleries >> Gallery Forty-Seven: How using words in pictures can expand meaning > WCTU Fountain, Petaluma, California, 2007
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09-JUN-2007

WCTU Fountain, Petaluma, California, 2007

Petaluma has saved this concrete drinking fountain on a busy downtown corner. It was erected in 1891 by the Women's Christian Temperance Union – an organization dedicated to banning the sale and drinking of alcohol. The words engraved on this severe, monolithic fountain reflect 19th century morality. I built the image around this severity and its long shadow. The fountain still exists in the 21st century, and so does both the issue of Alcoholism and the WCTU.

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Phil Douglis20-Jul-2007 21:29
Thanks for the warning, Iris. I will do as you say. Promise.
Phil
Iris Maybloom (irislm)20-Jul-2007 21:04
Beware of those "true believers" whose self-righteous mission in life is to convert you to their way of thinking. These folks (WCTU, as one example) might have given up the demon rum and campaigned for all to follow suit, but didn't they consume all those miracle stomach bitters hawked to cure all ills? Hmmm! Do as I say.................!
Phil Douglis30-Jun-2007 20:17
Good point, Charu The camera stops time, but in doing so, it creates a template for the future that can be used to appreciate the nature of change. While the 1981 admonition carved into this fountain may seem quaint in 2007, the concept, as you so eloquently point out, is still very much with us.
Guest 30-Jun-2007 15:17
Phil, I like this entire gallery - this photograph particularly struck me as a reminder of the fact photographs can be used to indicate change as well as a sense of frozen time... that some things never change - if this was a closed 19th century view, in many parts of the world today, similar views exist - with respect to say, adolescence sex issues - countries like the UK are now advocating abstinence as the solution! the more things change, the more they seem to stay the same...
Phil Douglis20-Jun-2007 22:27
Thanks, Tim, for adding this important context. I also wondered why no water in a water fountain that promoted abstinence from alcohol. I am sure that the original intention of the WCTU was to offer an alternative to booze.
Tim May20-Jun-2007 21:57
As someone who has lived with this fountain for 40 years I would like to add something from outside the image. Up until recently, the was a working water fountain. So the WCTU was not only sending a message, they were also giving an alternative. I, as a citizen of Petaluma, wonder why it is no longer a working fountain.
Phil Douglis20-Jun-2007 18:04
What you are seeing here, Rosemary, is the 19th century mind at work. It was a moralistic, self-righteous age. Alcoholics, along with the mentally ill, were immoral. Organizations, wrapped in their own theology, imposed their beliefs on others. This particular group, the WCTU, was the force behind prohibition, which made the sale of alcohol illegal for a number of years. The harsh lines and unyielding granite you speak of symbolize the moral imperatives that governed social behavior 100 years ago. Times have changed, but there are still many who
would agree with the sentiments expressed on this fountain.
sunlightpix20-Jun-2007 16:43
I love the harsh lines and the unyielding granite.
I note the use of the word "problem". In the 19th century alcholism was deemed a moral weakness, but with advances in medicine, alcholism in the 21st century is thought of more in terms of a disease and/or an addiction. Interestingly, Alcholocs Anonymous does not have a clear cut definition of alcholism.
And I note the words "total abstinence" - as if there's such a thing as partial abstinence?
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