Contest Booklets

Contest Booklets

WCTU oratorical contest booklets were compiled by Adelia Carman, the National WCTU Superintendent of Medal Contests. They were printed at the WCTU’s National Headquarters, which was located in the Woman’s Temple building in downtown Chicago. As with the “reciters,” these paperbound booklets contain selections written by authors, reformers, religious leaders, and politicians, intended for performers ranging from children to older women. All of the orations pertain to temperance. The pages are peppered with advertisements for schools of oratory and elocution correspondence courses, encouraging adult women to not only vie for WCTU medals, but to develop professional speaking skills.

Contests were arranged and implemented under local judges, though they followed rules set by the National WCTU. Organizers were advised to draw the pool of contestants from “those of as nearly the same age and ability as possible.” Contestants picked selections from WCTU booklets or from Demorest’s Speakers. Medals could be won for a variety of contests, including “Demorest, Suffrage, L. T. L. [Loyal Temperance Legion], Mercy or anti-narcotic.” During the 1910s and 1920s, a period marked by the First World War and increasing hostility to European immigration, a contest dedicated to “Patriotism” was added that reflected the WCTU’s broader “Americanization” campaign, as well as one focused on “Peace and Arbitration.”

Adelia E. Carman

Mrs. Adelia E. Carman, The Medal Contest Reciter: Containing Selections to be Used in a Series of W.C.T.U. Medal Contests Nos. 1-22
Mrs. Adelia E. Carman, The WCTU National Educator Nos. 1-19
The Medal Contest Recitationist Nos. 1-3
The Twentieth Century Medal Contest Reciter Nos. 1-10