William H. Smith's The Drunkard (premiering in 1844) broke attendance records at Moses Kimball's Boston Museum and P. T. Barnum's American Museum in New York. Portraying the ills of intemperance, the melodrama also foregrounded thrilling scenes of local urbanity to inspire middle-class tourists to navigate convoluted and potentially dangerous city streets.

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© 2014 by The New England Quarterly
2014
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