Commissioner 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.
- Date
- 1929-10-04
- Kind
- case-file
- Retrieved
- 2026-10-11
- NAID
- 16972736
- Rights
- The National Archives catalog lists this item's Use Restriction status as "Unrestricted." Federal records are public domain under 17 U.S.C. § 105.
The National Archives catalog titles this “Letter from J. M. Doran, Commissioner of Prohibition, to George W. Wickersham, Chairman of the National Commission on Law Observation and Enforcement.” The typed Treasury Department, Bureau of Prohibition letter describes enclosed photographs of a Chicago residence converted into a large illicit distillery, with fermenting tubs and column stills, using corn sugar. It says such converted residences are hard to search under the National Prohibition Act and the Willis-Campbell Act, and names an Administrator, Yellowley, as the letter prints it.
The enclosed photographs are not part of the digital object. The item is in Record Group 10 (Records of the National Commission on Law Observance and Enforcement), series Records Relating to Reports of Committees, and is an item in NARA’s “Spirited Republic” exhibit. The full-resolution image is 12 MB; the stored copy was resized.
