Joshua -- I don't know if you got an answer to this already, but ...
   There is a series of international temperance congresses which started in 1885.  An international secretariat was set up in 1907 or so in Lausanne, and this became what is now the International Congress on Alcohol and Addictions, still holding international institutes and conventions, although it lost its temperance character and became a general marketplace for alcohol issues in the 1950s and later also drug (and now gambling and tobacco) issues.  ICAA may have been more European than American in its history, although at least two of its conventions were held in Washington.  ICAA's website (http://www.icaa.de/index2.htm) has a bit of the history, and a listing (under conferences) of the Congresses.  At least one history of it was commissioned about 15 years ago, but I believe never published.  Proceedings were published from most of the Congresses before the 1990s; they are a very interesting international record of what was happening.  CAN here in Stockholm has most of the proceedings, but the early congress proceedings are probably quite widely available from temperance collections.    
    Let me know if you want to know more.  Robin 

-----Original Message-----
From: Alcohol and Temperance History Group
[mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Joshua Paddison
Sent: Saturday, December 20, 2003 10:53 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: World's Temperance Conventions


Hello,

I'm working on a short project about connections between abolitionism and
temperance. Can anyone tell me how many World's Temperance Conventions
were held (and, if possible, where and when)?

I know about the first convention in London in 1846 (Frederick Douglass
and William Lloyd Garrison were among the delegates), and the 1853
convention in New York City in 1853 is famous (black activist James McCune
Smith was barred from taking his seat, and Antoinette Brown and Susan B.
Anthony were not allowed to speak). I'm having trouble finding information
about other conventions, however.

Thanks! Any information or citations would be appreciated.

Best,
Josh Paddison
Department of History, UCLA