In 1872 a Grand Rapids woman recruited her friends to work with her to help save her husband from alcohol. This group of friends started the Women's Prohibition Society. Members of the society would gather in front of city saloons and hotels and pray for the salvation of the owners and customers, hoping they would give up the sin of selling and consuming alcohol. One year later, there was a push to start similar grassroots organizations in other counties. Meanwhile, Abigail Hastings in Lansing received the inspiration while in prayer to start a crusade against alcohol. Thus, the idea of the Michigan Woman's Christian Temperance Union was born. Inspired by the temperance movement in Ohio, Michigan women gathered in Lansing for a convention in 1874. At a second convention that same year they officially took the name of the Michigan WCTU. The women felt this name stressed the importance of Christian ethics.

By 1881 there were seven unions in Kent County, with four located in Grand Rapids. These first unions were Central, East St., Sixth Ward, West Bridge St., Ada, Lowell and Rockford. By 1885, Grand Rapids alone had eight WCTU unions: General Union, Central Union, Fifth Ward, Sixth Ward, South Union, East Street, Eighth Ward and Bridge Street. Another area union, the Benjamin WCTU, was actively fighting saloons and giving testimony in trials of saloon owners by 1895. A Young Woman's Christian Temperance Union was established, where young women members from Grand Rapids would reach out to others their age who did not attend church. In the early 1900s, a Pink Ribbon Society was created and unmarried women signed a pledge that they would die old maids before marrying a man who used alcohol. The WCTU campaigned to outlaw liquor sales in Michigan. They did this through petitioning local governments, boycotting grocery stores that sold alcohol, praying with reformed men and teaching the public the dangers of alcohol, among other tactics.

Frances Willard, the National WCTU president from 1879 to 1898, expanded the organization to include the issues of woman's suffrage and protection for women and children. Grand Rapids WCTU members also took on issues apart from prohibition. They opened a “Women's Home and Hospital” to help female prostitutes find a new path in life and they selected the books and operated the library of the city-county jail. They believed that if women were given the right to vote, prohibition would finally happen. Many women knew first-hand the results of an alcoholic husband or father on the physical and mental state of family members, which is one reason they fought strongly for prohibition.

The WCTU was strongest during the fight leading up to the 1919 addition of the 18th amendment, which established prohibition in the United States. They took up the slogan “For God, Home, and Native land” which later changed to “For God, Home, and Every Land,” and this slogan can be found on many programs throughout the collection. Throughout the state of Michigan, WCTU members continued the crusade, even causing some saloons in Detroit to quit business. In the late 1800s, the WCTU proposed legislation that would mandate public schools to teach the effects of drugs and alcohol on the body and in 1887 Michigan was one of the first states to make these classes a law.

Though they had the legislation, temperance movements had a hard time enforcing it and bootleg liquor sales thrived. Michigan waterways and connections to Canada made the illegal sale of alcohol in the state even easier.

After the amendment was repealed in 1933, the WCTU lost direction and people began to leave the organization. By 1992, the National WCTU had 50,000 members. Today, the National WCTU, under the presidency of Rita Kay Wert, focuses on the issues of abstinence from alcohol, educating youth about drugs and alcohol and making illegal same-sex marriage, stem-cell research, and abortion. Though the Michigan WCTU contributed funds to a 2004 Health Expo, there is no evidence of an active Michigan chapter of the WCTU and there is no link to a Michigan chapter from the National WCTU website.