Illicit still found by the Coast Guard and Alcohol Tax Unit, Craven County, North Carolina (30 November 1948)
A Coast Guard photograph of 30 November 1948: wooden fermenting boxes and barrels among thin trees. The catalog says the Coast Guard and the Alcohol Tax Unit located the distillery in Craven County, North Carolina.
- Date
- 1948-11-30
- Kind
- photograph
- Retrieved
- 2026-10-12
- NAID
- 205590823
- Rights
- A photograph in the Records of the U.S. Coast Guard (Record Group 26), series "Photographs of Activities, Facilities, and Personalities" (NAID 513164), file unit "Prohibition Era 1924; Radio; Regattas & Parades; Refugees." The item reads "Use Restriction: Unrestricted." The series note says: "Fewer than one percent of photographs in this series are credited to commercial sources, and may have copyright or other use restrictions." No commercial credit appears on this item; a Coast Guard photograph is a United States government work, public domain under 17 U.S.C. § 105. The stored copy is an 1,800-pixel downsample of the catalog's scan.
The National Archives catalog title is “Illicit still,” local identifier 26-G-11-30-48(5), with a production date of 30 November 1948. The catalog description reads: “This image depicts an illicit distillery located by the Coast Guard and Alcohol Tax Unit in Craven County, North Carolina.” The photograph shows wooden box vats and barrels standing among thin trees on muddy ground, with logs in the foreground.
The photograph was taken fifteen years after repeal; the still was illegal under the federal liquor tax laws, which the Alcohol Tax Unit enforced. The Coast Guard filed it with its Prohibition-era pictures. No person, arrest or exact site is named, and this page states none.
