Museum of History & Culture opens new exhibit featuring Virginia-made alcohol

RICHMOND, Va. (WWBT) -The Virginia Museum of History and Culture is continuing its reopening festivities with a new exhibit that explores the impact of alcohol consumption and production that is woven into the history of Virginia.

Cheers, Virginia! Explores the past four centuries of alcohol, brewed, distilled and fermented, and how it affected life in the commonwealth.

The exhibition explores early Virginians’ need to drink alcohol as an alternative to unsafe drinking water in the past, George Washington’s contribution to distilling in the country’s earliest days and the numerous inventions made to address the need for packaging and transportation. It also ventures into prohibition that evolved from the temperance movement and its ultimate repeal. Then finally, into current craft brewing, distilling and winemaking culture and practitioners.

Cheers, Virginia! has 50 artifacts on display, including a liquor chest given by the Marquis de Lafayette to William Cabell, Jr. as a token of his service during the Revolutionary War, “Repeal the 18th Amendment/ More Beer Less Taxes” scarf and a Monticello Wine Company wine bottle from the late 1800s.

The exhibit is free with museum admission and runs from Aug. 6-Jan. 29.

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