A Large and Curious History: Tobacco at The College of William and Mary

From William and 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 and 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 through October 2010, but remember...No Smoking Allowed!

The four exhibit cases each have a theme: "A Penny a Pound" covers the tobacco economy, including the College of William and Mary's role;"Peddling Poison" showcases advertising by tobacco companies; "Smokin' Sports" illustrates the relationship between tobacco and William and 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.

From the Special Collections Research Center, Earl Gregg Swem Library at the College of William and Mary. See swem.wm.edu/scrc/ for further information and assistance.