Medicine in Durham and Duke University

Collection includes print advertisements, accessories and merchandise catalogs, collector newsletters, direct mailings, cigarette and tobacco labels and packaging, point of sale displays, sheet music, memorabilia and collectibles, tobacco tins, smoking and smoking cessation paraphernalia, juvenile and adult literature, research reports and articles on smoking and health and other printed materials, along with audio and video cassettes and optical discs.

The Tobacco Collection spans the years 1828-1987, with the bulk of the items dating from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and contains material assembled by library staff related to the manufacturing, sale, and use of tobacco in the United States, particularly in the South.(NC and VA)

Approximately 160 print advertisements, most removed from issues of "The State," a North Carolina publication. Advertisements are primarily for cigarettes and other tobacco products from American Tobacco Company (Lucky Strike), Liggett & Myers (Chesterfield) and R.J. Reynolds (Camel, Salem, Winston, plus several corporate advertisements for other products). Many of the advertisements feature testimonials from celebrities (socialites, actors, singers and sports figures).

Collection consists primarily of advertisements for various Liggett and Myers tobacco products such as Chesterfield, Fatima, and Piedmont cigarettes, ca. 1910-1950s, as well as advertisements for competitors during the 1970s. Also included are scripts for radio and television commercials sponsored by Liggett and Myers during the 1950s.

Collection consists of thousands of cigarette, tobacco, tea, and foodstuffs trading cards, arranged by topic or set; hundreds of silks, blankets, and pins also distributed as collectibles through packages of tobacco; and about fifty original packages and tins of tobacco products, dating from the late nineteenth to late twentieth century. Companies represented in this collection include cigarette, plug tobacco, and cigar companies.

an online exhibit (adapted from a physical exhibit in 2022) planned, coordinated and executed by the John W. Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising, & Marketing History and the Duke University Archives - both part of the Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library. The exhibit examines “the history of the cigarette in the United States, from their initial unpopularity, to their emergence as a ubiquitous element of American life, to the rise of vaping today.”

The Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising & Marketing History and Rubenstein Library hold a large number of collections documenting many facets of tobacco history in the United States. In addition to tobacco advertising and ephemera, the library also holds the records of tobacco manufacturers, tobacco industry executives, tobacco-related publications, photographs, and tobacco ephemera such as packaging, tags, cards and broadsides.