The Cogswell Society is a social group founded in 1972 by employees of the Federal Trade Commission

Federal Trade Commission

The Federal Trade Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, established in 1914 by the Federal Trade Commission Act...

, whose office neighbors the landmark Temperance Fountain

Temperance Fountain

The Temperance Fountain is a fountain and statue located in Washington, D.C., donated to the city in 1882 by Henry D. Cogswell, a dentist from San Francisco, California, who was a crusader in the temperance movement....

 designed by Henry D. Cogswell

Henry D. Cogswell

Dr. Henry Daniel Cogswell was a dentist and a crusader in the temperance movement. He and his wife Caroline also founded Cogswell College in San Francisco, California. Another campus in Everett, Washington was later dedicated in his honor.-Life:Born in Tolland, Connecticut, as a youth, he worked...

. The society, which meets monthly at various bars around the Washington, D.C. area, is dedicated to “the study of man's excesses and the lack of temperance in past and present cultures.” http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?sec=travel&res=9B0DE1D91630F934A35752C0A961948260 Members utter the society’s oath, “To temperance; I'll drink to that,” standing on one leg, in imitation of the heron that tops the temperance advocate’s fanciful fountain.http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?sec=travel&res=980CE4DA1239F935A35757C0A964948260

External links

• All's Well That Ends With a Drink to Cogswell (Citypaper article)