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B+W photo of a cooper placing a top hoop to complete a barrel, Verdi Bros. Cooperage Co., Hoboken, March 17, 1933.

Photograph
Black-and-white photo of a cooper placing a hoop to complete the manufacture of a wood barrel, Verdi Brothers Cooperage Co., Hoboken, March 17, 1933. 7" x 9" high print. Photograph taken by Wide World, New York. Reverse with their credit inkstamp (faint); printed caption; two inkstamps: Central Press Association Reference Dept. with blue pencil file no.: 3847; date stamp: Mar 20 1933. Text of caption and slug: From Wide World Photos: Local: Hoboken, N.J. AN ESSENTIAL PART OF THE BEER INDUSTRY. Due to the almost certain return of real beer in the near future, brewers are swamping the firm of Verdi Brothers Coopering [sic - Cooperage] Company in Hoboken, N.J., with orders for new barrells in which to store and ship their products. The wood used in the manufacture of the barrells is quartered white oak from the Ozark Mountains in Arkansas where it is milled into staves 1-3/8-inches in thickness. D -- 3/1733. 30 - The placing of the centre hoop completes the make-up of the barrell. D - 3/18/33. ==== The end of Prohibition was imminent. See notes. ---- Verdi Brothers was in Hoboken for circa two decades. They apparently left for North Bergen in the mid-1930s and later, to Edgewater, N.J. where the company closed in 1983.

2014.013.0133

2014.013

Lukacs, Claire

Gift

Museum Collections. Gift of a friend of the Museum.

Wide World

1933

Hoboken

7 in

9 in

Notes: Per Wikipedia, 2014: The beginning of the end of Prohibition in the United States occurred as a result of the Cullen-Harrison Act and its signing into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on March 23, 1933. Sales of beer in the U.S would become legal on April 7, 1933, provided that the state in question had enacted its own law allowing such sales. The beer had to have an alcohol content less than 3.2% (4% ABV), compared to the 0.5% limit of the Volstead Act, because 3.2% was considered too low to produce intoxication. On the evening of April 6, people lined up outside breweries and taverns, waiting for midnight when they would be able to legally purchase beer for the first time in over 13 years. Since then, the night of April 6 has been referred to as "New Beer's Eve" and April 7th is known as "National Beer Day" Original or Copy: Original Status: OK Status By: dw Status Date: 2014-11-20

image: cooper at work on barrels, Verdi Bros. Cooperage
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