Nation smashed the bar, mirror, and a nude painting at Wichita's Carey Hotel saloon; her arrest brought her international fame.
On December 27, 1900, Carrie Nation entered the ornate barroom of the Carey Hotel in Wichita, Kansas, one of the city's most prominent saloons, and proceeded to destroy the elaborate cherrywood bar, a large mirror, and a painting of a nude woman entitled Cleopatra at the Bath that hung behind the counter. Wielding rocks and an iron rod, she caused extensive damage before being arrested and jailed.
This event proved to be the turning point that catapulted Nation from a regional temperance activist into a nationally—and eventually internationally—recognized figure. Newspapers across the country seized on the sensational story of a middle-aged woman single-handedly wrecking a saloon in the name of Christian morality, and the incident became emblematic of the militant wing of the prohibition movement.
Following the Wichita raid, Nation adopted the hatchet as her signature weapon and public symbol, coining the term 'hatchetation' for her subsequent raids. She would go on to sell souvenir miniature hatchets to fund her activities and legal defenses. The Wichita arrest also marked the first of many stints in jail, which she treated as martyrdom for her cause. Her fame from this single act allowed her to launch a career as a lecturer, further spreading her militant brand of temperance activism across the United States and abroad, and cementing her legacy as one of the most vivid and polarizing figures of the Progressive Era reform movements.