In this talk “Prohibition in the Vanderburgh County Courts”, Amber Gowen, Archivist for the Vanderburgh County Clerk, will explore the ways prohibition laws impacted the court system. This in an era when new speakeasies and the operation of stills opened as quickly as the “booze squad” of the Evansville Police Department shut them down. Court dockets were overwhelmed with cases of liquor law violators until judges became resigned to the cast of characters rotating through their courtrooms. This talk will feature the cases of four women and the challenge they presented to the judicial system as females came before the courts with greater frequency.

Gowen is responsible for over 200 years of county records. She has spearheaded the documentation and preservation of key late 19th and early 20th century vital records with a focus on bringing these stories back into the community. Her research centers on Evansville women in the prohibition and World War I eras. She was recently appointed by Governor Holcomb to serve on the Indiana State Historical Records Advisory Board. She also serves on the board of the Vanderburgh County Historical Society and on the History Committee of the Evansville Museum. Gowen is an award-winning historian, including the 2019 Dorothy Riker Hoosier Historian Award presented by the Indiana Historical Society.

Let us know you plan to attend at emuseum.org/rsvp.