From William & Mary's own Nottoway Quarter tobacco, to the Tau Chi Literary Society's "large and curious smoking pipe," a cigarette holder decorated with (near-mascot) pugs, to a musical ashtray in William & Mary's green and gold, Swem Library's Special Collections Research Center holds documents and artifacts that reflect the history and changing fashions of tobacco in America.
Students in the NIAHD Field School in Material Culture (HIST 491-03/591-03, Prof. Susan Kern) have curated an exhibition of tobacco objects from Swem’s collection. Come visit the exhibition, but remember...No Smoking Allowed!
The four exhibit cases each have a theme: "A Penny a Pound" covers the tobacco economy, including William & Mary's role;"Peddling Poison" showcases advertising by tobacco companies; "Smokin' Sports" illustrates the relationship between tobacco and William & Mary sports---in particular football---during the 1940s and 1950s; and "Smoking for the Learned Man" demonstrates how tobacco paraphernalia and advertisements of the 19th and early 20th centuries added to and played off this image of the gentleman smoker as a cultured, Renaissance man.
Curators: Students in the NIAHD Field School in Material Culture (HIST 491-03/591-03, Prof. Susan Kern) including Lauren Brincat, Abigail Fine, Melanie Zucker, Lydia Blackmore, Alexandra Dowrey, Nichole Lidstrom, Morgan Flaherty, Jennifer Garrott, Laura Piticco, Robin Reynolds, Melissa Deliramich, Susan Kern; Exhibit design and installation: Chandi Singer, Burger Archives Assistant, Amy Schindler, University Archivist; Class.
Images of the installed exhibit are available at the SCRC's Flickr page. A recording of the William & Mary football ashtray is available at the SCRC's YouTube page.