Cocktail Kingdom Library

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The ‘Cocktail Canon’ Timeline

When we think about, write about, and discuss cocktail history (or any other specialization) we often do so as if it all happened in a vacuum. Our sense of timescale is often vague or distorted, as well. In this exhibit we place many of the significant publications in our bibliography on a timeline against some of the other notable things that were taking place in the drinks industry and the world. (See also our other timeline The Evolution of Mixed Drinks.)

This exhibit is interactive:

  • Use your browser’s zoom feature to make the timeline larger or smaller
  • Slide timeline left and right by dragging it or using your device’s scrolling features
  • Click/tap on book jackes for bibliographic information
  • Switch between different sets of historical context:
1790 1800 1810 1820 1830 1840 1850 1860 1870 1880 1890 1900 1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010 2020 1790 1800 1810 1820 1830 1840 1850 1860 1870 1880 1890 1900 1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010 2020 2,600+ books & articles a mere handful of publications & articles 4 million slaves in the United States 0 slaves in the United States (sort of) 700,000 slaves in the United States lynchings 49 161 1.5 million in Federal incarceration 100,000 in Federal incarceration California gold rush Republic of Texas Railroads developed Systematic eradication of the bison Choctaw Forced Relocation Colorado gold rush Nevada silver rush Civil War Black Hills War Mexican-American War War of 1812 Reconstruction Black Hills gold rush Sexual Revolution McCarthyism “The Progressive Era” Louisiana Purchase (white) women get right to vote in USA Margaret Sanger founds Planned Parenthood Brown v. Board of Education Oral contraceptives Hugh Hefner founds Playboy AIDS first clinically reported Los Angeles riots Barack Obama elected POTUS Stonewall Black Lives Matter Thurgood Marshall appointed to SCOTUS American Colonization Society founded Cotton Gin patented Erie Canal Opens Missouri Compromise William Lloyd Garrison founds The Liberator Texas becomes a state Hawaii annexed Hawaii statehood Watergate Scandal Assassination of Malcolm X Black Panther Party founded crack epidemic Seminole Forced Relocation Creek Forced Relocation Lewis & Clark Expedition Cherokee Forced Relocation Chickasaw Forced Relocation Wounded Knee Massacre Uncle Tom’s Cabin (book) Sojourner Truth escapes slavery Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass Harriet Tubman escapes slavery and becomes active Fugitive Slave Act ACLU founded W.E.B. duBois’ The Souls of Black Folks (book) W.E.B. duBois’ Black Reconstruction in America (book) Nation of Islam founded in Detroit Kent State Shootings FBI runs COINTELPRO Albert Hoffman creates LSD Albert Hoffman creates LSD Timothy Leary establishes L.S.D. Equal Rights Amendment introduced ERA ratification fails San Francisco earthquake and fire Plessy v. Ferguson Chinese Exclusion Act The Birth of a Nation (film) NAACP founded Greenwood Massacre Detroit Race Riot Race Riots Japanese Internment Camps Civil Rights Movement Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. Assassination of John F. Kennedy Jr. Emmett Till lynched Haitian Revolution Vietnam/American War WW1 Russian Revolution Chinese Civil War Unification of Italy Spanish–American War Great Depression Spanish Civil War WW2 Cuban Revolution Khmer Rouge Regime Canadian Independence first skyscraper electrification begins Bessemer steel process Mexican Independence Congress of Vienna establishes Confederation of German States Unification of Germany Franco-Prussian War Austro-Prussian War CIA-affected Iranian coup d'état India Independence Elizabeth II coronation Cuban Missile Crisis Boeing 707/“jet age” begins Partition of Ottoman Empire George VI coronated failed CIA-affected Indonesian coup CIA-affected Indonesian coup and massacre CIA-affected Chilean coup d'état Islamic Revolution in Iran Smallpox eradicated Berlin Wall falls Cuban Independence Napoleonic Wars French Revolution Irish Famine March Revolution in Germany First Italian War of Independence Second Italian War of Independence Arab–Israeli War Civil War (USA) Mexican-American War War of 1812 “Reconstruction” (USA) McCarthyism “The Gilded Age” “The Progressive Era” AIDS first clinically reported Erie Canal Opens Telegraph patented Wright Bros. first powered flight Watergate Scandal Haitian Revolution Panic of 1907 Panama canal opens Crash of 1929 Black Monday World Wide Web full commercialization of the Internet Kent State Shootings Ford Model T MK-Ultra (CIA mind control program) Financial Crisis of 2008-2009 Dust bowl San Francisco earthquake and fire Iraq War US invasion of Afghanistan Al Qaeda terrorism in USA London bombings Madrid bombings Cold War Apollo 11 Yuri Gagarin orbits Earth Sputnik Korean War ocean liner era development of continuous distillation various obscure early references to “cocktail” in media phylloxera epidemic/wine blight liquor brands begin to emerge world-wide various absinthe bans begin in Europe and America introduction of the coupe Old Tom gin era (England) GE begins selling electric refrigerators Frigidaire invents Freon Waring Blender introduced Schenley Distillers Company founded Studio 54 Midori liqueur launched by Suntory Coco López invented Playboy Club opens in Chicago Mariano Martinez invents frozen Margarita machine Henry Africa’s opens in San Francisco Pure Food and Drug Act Don’s Beachcomber opens in Hollywood Trader Vic’s opens in Oakland Mai Kai opens in Fort Lauderdale Tiki-Ti opens in Los Angeles soda fountain at Tilemmas, in Milwaukee, does “Hawaiian Week” reintroduction of absinthe begins A Tribute to “Professor” Jerry Thomas (Slow Food USA) Tales of the Cocktail IBA founded UKBG founded “dipsomania” coined by C.W. Hufeland “alcoholism” first use by Magnus Huss Alcoholics Anonymous founded Jean Lanfray murders his family in a drunken rage in Commugny, Switzerland James Pimm produces his first fruit cup “mixologist” first appears in print Pullman Car Company begins making rail cars Pernod Fils builds large absinthe distillery in Pontarlier peak soda fountain era decline of soda fountain John Mathews invents soda fountain apparatus Charles Plinth invents soda syphon Delmonico brothers open first restaurant service in New York Schrafft’s begins restaurant chain that caters to unaccompanied women Heublein introduces bottled cocktails Bottled-in-Bond Act Owens Bottle Machine Company automates bottle manufacturing first T.G.I.Fridays opens in New York first T.G.I.Fridays opens in England first T.G.I.Fridays opens in Japan flair bartending fad launched by John Bandy at T.G.I.Fridays in Los Angeles Distillers Corporation Limited/Seagrams founded Martini, Rossi & Sola founded vermouth goes mainstream Ford Model T Interstate Highway System Begun Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) Schumann’s Cocktail Bar opens in Munich Temperence movement begins (and never really ends) electrification begins lake ice trade era begins Dug’s Dive and emergence of dive bar Leo Engel American and Other Drinks Frank Meier Artistry of Mixing Drinks Frank Newman American Bar Charles Schumann American Bar Kazuo Uyeda Cocktail Techniques Tony Conigliaro Drinks Fernando Castellon Larousse Cocktails Charles Schumann Tropical Barbuch Santiago Policastro Tragos Mágicos Jacinto Sanfeliu Brucart El Bar Hilario Alonso S. El Arte del Cantinero Pedro Chicote El Bar Americano En España Mazzon Ferruccio Guida del Barman Mixer Gerardo Coralles Manual Oficial de Club de Cantineros John Escalante Manual del Cantinero Leybold/Schönfeld Lexikon der Getränk de Fleury 1700 Cocktails W. J. Tarling Café Royal Cocktail Book Harry Craddock, The Savoy Cocktail Book Turenne La Veritable Maneiere de Faire el Punch Robert Vermeire Cocktails: How to Mix Them Oxford Night Caps Mixology Magazin Toye/Adair Drinks Long & Short Harry McElhone Harry’s ABC of Mixing Cocktails UKBG Approved Cocktails The UKBG Guide to Drinks Haney's Steward & Barkeepers Manual “Fancy American Drinks” New York Sun William Schmidt The Flowing Bowl William Kappeler Modern American Drinks Charles Mahoney Hoffman House Bartender’s Guide Jacques Straub Drinks Tom Bullock The Ideal Bartender Hugo Ensslin Recipes for Mixed Drinks Louis Muckensturm Louis’ Mixed Drinks cocktaildb.com Drinkboy forum webtender.com AOL/Compuserve and Blog Era David Wondrich Imbibe! David Wondrich Punch Gary Regan The Joy of Mixology Dale DeGroff Craft of the Cocktail Dave Arnold Liquid Intelligence Jim Meehan PDT Cocktail Book Jeff Berry Grog Log Jeff Berry Intoxica Jeff Berry Sippin’ Safari Patrick Gavin Duffy The Official Mixer’s Manual Old Mr. Boston Bartende r ’s Guide Charles Baker Jr., The Gentleman’s Companion Charles Baker Jr., The South American Gentleman’s Companion Ted Saucier Bottom’s Up Stan Jones Jones Complete Bar Guide Ted Haigh Vintage Spirits & Forgotten Cocktails William Grimes Straight Up or On the Rocks Gary Regan/Mardee Regan New Classic Cocktails Paul Harrington Cocktail Paul Harrington hotwired.com’s Cocktail Time Matthew Rowley Lost Recipes of Prohibition Dornenburg/Page Flavor Bible Darcy O’Neil Fix the Pumps Harry Johnson Handbuch für Barkeeper O. H. Byron Modern Bartenders’ Guide Saxe’s Hints to Soda Water Dispensers Theodore Proulx The Bartender’s Manual The Cocktail Book: A Sideboard Manual for Gentlemen Jerry Thomas How to Mix Drinks Harry Johnson New & Improved Bartender’s Guide Charlie Paul American and Other Iced Drinks William Boothby American Bartender William Boothby The World’s Drinks H. i. Williams 3 Bottle Bar Albert Stevens Crockett Old Waldorf Bar Days David Embury The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks Jeff Berry Potions of the Caribbean G. Selmer Fougner’s Along the Wine Trail column in the New York Sun Herrick/Harland Consolidated Library of Modern Cooking Vol V Mary Randolph The Virginia House-wife Eliza Leslie Directions for Cookery, in Various Branches Jim MeehanMeehan’s Bartender Manual David Wondrich/Noah RothbaumOxford Companion toSpirits & Cocktails
Designed by Martin Doudoroff. Contributions by Greg Boehm, David Wondrich, Luke Andrews, Robert Hess, Audrey Saunders, Robert Simonson, Ben Schaffer, Federico Sardi, Jessica Spector, and François Monti. Pointer icons by @sawyerh.