Historic Moonshine Still
c. 1800s
Copper
18 1/2 x 13 inches


Moonshine stills were common in the 1800s on farms and in rural areas of Pennsylvania and Appalachia. Moonshine and whiskey made from corn supplemented farmers’ incomes; when crop quality was poor, they could sell their corn to distillers or use it themselves to produce liquor. Once prohibition became the law of the land, moonshiners would hide their stills in forests and rocky mountain outcrops.

