National Archives lesson, "The Volstead Act" (Educator Resources)

National Archives teaching lesson pairing the Eighteenth Amendment, the Volstead Act, a Bureau of Prohibition letter on transporting liquor from California to Washington, the proclamation of repeal and the Twenty-first Amendment resolution. A finding aid to records filed here.

Date: 2017
Kind: finding-aid
Source: National Archives, Educator Resources
Retrieved: 2026-10-11
Rights: Federal agency web page, a work of the U.S. government (17 U.S.C. § 105).

The National Archives Educator Resources lesson “The Volstead Act” pairs the Eighteenth Amendment, the Volstead Act, a Bureau of Prohibition letter about transporting liquor from California to Washington, a still drawing, a 1919 letter from Harry S. Truman to Bess Wallace, the Presidential proclamation of repeal and the Twenty-first Amendment resolution. The page links each document to DocsTeach. The activities page’s footer reads “last reviewed on February 24, 2017.”

This page works as a finding aid to records filed here: the enrolled Volstead Act (NARA 299827), the California-to-Washington letter (298430), the Twenty-first Amendment resolution (596379) and the repeal proclamation draft (122179508). The DocsTeach pages for the Volstead Act and the repeal proclamation returned an HTTP 429 error or a human-verification page and were not read; only the DocsTeach Twenty-first Amendment page was opened.

itemEnrolled National Prohibition Act (Volstead Act), 28 October 1919National Archives enrolled copy, first page, of H.R. 6810, the National Prohibition Act, with the title "An Act to prohibit intoxicating beverages" and a Department of State stamp dated 28 October 1919.

itemBureau of Prohibition letter on transporting liquor from California to Washington (21 February 1928)National Archives Bureau of Prohibition letter from the file on a conspiracy to transport liquor from California to Washington during Prohibition, as the catalog describes it. The catalog's single digital page is stored.

itemJoint Resolution proposing the Twenty-first Amendment (S.J. Res. 211, 1933)National Archives enrolled copy of S.J. Res. 211, 72d Congress, proposing the amendment that repeals the Eighteenth. Section 1 repeals the eighteenth article of amendment.

itemProclamation No. 2065, repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment (draft text, 5 December 1933)Franklin D. Roosevelt Library typescript draft of Proclamation 2065 (Speech File 668), headed "Date of Repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment", reciting the joint resolution proposing the amendment and its Section 1.