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A large riveted horizontal tank and a vertical metal column with pipes, gauges and a ladder in a room beside a panelled door, with a handwritten caption reading Illicit Distillery, Chicago, Ill., seized 9-25-29, and Ex No 3 in blue.
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Exhibit Number 3: illicit distillery, Chicago, seized 25 September 1929 (Wickersham Commission records)

A photograph in the Wickersham Commission's Prohibition committee records, marked "Ex No 3," of a riveted tank and column still in a basement room; the handwritten caption gives a Chicago street address and the seizure date 25 September 1929.

Date
1929-09-25
Kind
photograph
Source
National Archives Catalog, Records of the National Commission on Law Observance and Enforcement (RG 10), Records Relating to Reports of Committees
Retrieved
2026-10-12
NAID
16972730
Rights
A photograph in the Records of the National Commission on Law Observance and Enforcement (Record Group 10), series "Records Relating to Reports of Committees" (NAID 1560013), file unit "Prohibition" (NAID 16972726). The item and the series read "Use Restriction: Unrestricted." The file unit carries the note: "Some of the records in this series may be under copyright protection. Researchers should contact the publisher for further information." The print bears a government exhibit number and an enforcement caption and no publisher's credit; this archive relies on the item-level "Unrestricted" and treats it as a federal record, public domain under 17 U.S.C. § 105. The stored copy is an 1,800-pixel downsample.

The National Archives catalog title is “Exhibit Number 3: Illicit Distillery, 4712 Malden St. Chicago, Illinois,” with a production date of 25 September 1929. The handwriting on the print reads “47-6 Illicit Distillery 4712 Malden St, Chicago, Ill. seized 9-25-29,” and “Ex No 3” is written in blue below. The picture shows a large riveted horizontal tank and a vertical column with pipes, gauges and a ladder, in a room beside a panelled door.

The record is in the Prohibition file of the commission’s committee records. The letter of 4 October 1929 from Commissioner of Prohibition J. M. Doran to the commission, filed here, describes enclosed photographs of a Chicago residence converted into a large illicit distillery. The catalog does not link this exhibit to that letter, and this page does not claim that it is one of the enclosures.

No person is named on the print or in the catalog record. The address is the one written on the print and in the catalog title; this page states nothing about who lived or worked there.

itemCommissioner of Prohibition Doran to the Wickersham Commission on a Chicago residence converted to a distillery (4 October 1929)National Archives letter from J. M. Doran, Commissioner of Prohibition, to George W. Wickersham, chairman of the National Commission on Law Observation and Enforcement, describing enclosed photographs of a Chicago residence converted into a large illicit distillery.itemDetroit police inspecting equipment found in a clandestine underground brewery (Prohibition era)A New York Times Paris Bureau photograph that the National Archives titles "Detroit police inspecting equipment found in a clandestine underground brewery during the prohibition era." The catalog gives no date or address.