𝖳𝗁𝖾 𝖢𝖾𝗇𝗍𝖾𝗋 𝖿𝗈𝗋 𝗍𝗁𝖾 𝖲𝗍𝗎𝖽𝗒 𝗈𝖿 𝖳𝗈𝖻𝖺𝖼𝖼𝗈 𝖺𝗇𝖽 𝖲𝗈𝖼𝗂𝖾𝗍𝗒
College of Community Health Sciences | University of Alabama
College of Community Health Sciences | University of Alabama
The Center for the Study of Tobacco and Society was established at the University of Alabama in 1998 when its director, Dr. Alan Blum was appointed to the endowed chair in the College of Community Health Sciences. It is an outgrowth of the tobacco archive which Dr. Blum established in the 1970’s to preserve the materials held and to serve as an international resource on tobacco issues. The primary purpose of the Center for the Study of Tobacco and Society is to explore, investigate, compare and contrast the historical and contemporary aspects of the tobacco issue and the role and influence of tobacco in society through an interdisciplinary approach that involves research, professional education, and community outreach. The Center for the Study of Tobacco and Society draws from a multi-disciplinary advisory committee served by representatives from a variety of colleges at The University of Alabama and by a group of ad hoc advisors from throughout the world—distinguished individuals from the fields of history, law, anthropology, museum studies, publishing, library science, public health, and medicine. The tobacco archive held by the Center is unique because it is the only socio-cultural resource which documents the tobacco issue from all vantage points, from public health and anti-smoking strategies to the social, agricultural, economic, and promotional aspects. The archive’s collections include newspapers, magazines, business trade journals, annual reports, advertisements, point-of-sale displays, posters, signs, toys, video tapes, audio tapes, and more than 25,000 photographs and slides. In establishing the Center for the Study of Tobacco and Society, The University of Alabama brought together this interdisciplinary team in order to better understand the dynamics and complexities of this important issue, and to serve as an international model for training, education, and research in this area.
View our curated exhibitions.
Our themed collections of tobacco material.
Audio and video archives.
The Center’s staff and sponsors.
The Center for the Study of Tobacco and Society has moved to the Northeast Medical Building at the University of Alabama
Created in Santa Fe, New Mexico in 1970, the Virginia Slims Tennis Circuit was a response to the underpayment of women athletes. It was also a marketing opportunity for cigarette maker Philip Morris…
Cigarette advertising featured prominently in most issues of these newsweeklies from their inception to the early-2000s. This made for numerous ironic juxtapositions of front cover stories on cancer and back cover advertisements for cigarettes…
This exhibit highlights the connections and illustrates the history of tobacco’s relationship with minority communities…
DOC (Doctors Ought to Care) was founded in 1977 by three family physicians with the aim of inspiring doctors, residents, medical students and other health professionals to play a role in public health efforts beyond their examining rooms and hospitals…
2018 marked the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I. This exhibition explores the important role tobacco played in the war, both in the battlefield trenches and on the home front. The seeds were also planted for a pandemic of smoking-caused diseases.
How New York City became the Heart of the Tobacco Industry…and Anti-Smoking activism.
As with lung cancer and emphysema, the dramatic rise in heart disease in the US paralleled the rise in cigarette smoking. Yet despite the early published evidence of the link between smoking and heart disease, the American Medical Association (AMA) and other health groups were reluctant to urge the public to give up their cigarettes….
Corporate sponsorship of the arts was pioneered by Philip Morris as a means of diverting attention from the medical evidence of cigarette smoking’s devastating death toll…
A guide to The Center for the Study of Tobacco and Society’s exhibitions, collections, and other productions.
A guide to the Center’s exhibitions, collections and other productions.
Anti-Smoking Stamps from Around the World & The Surgeon General’s Stamp Campaign
For decades pharmaceutical manufacturers have employed stereotypical images of the inveterate smoker in advertisements for prescription medications in medical journals…
This collection is comprised of items relating to Dr. Alan Blum’s editorship of the Medical Journal of Australia (1982-1983) and the New York State Journal of Medicine (1983-1985), during which he produced the first three theme issues at any medical journal about the world cigarette pandemic…
Alan Blum, M.D. and Ransome Eke, M.D., Ph.D., MCHES are featured in the June 2021 edition of The Lancet.
“Confronting America’s Tobacco Pandemic,” was published by The Cancer Network in four parts during 2015 and 2016. Nearly all of the illustrations are from the CSTS collection…
The Center for Tobacco And Society’s Sports and Tobacco Exhibitions
Inspired by postmodern avant garde art, iconic ad campaigns to promote the brand Silk Cut sought to circumvent advertising regulations and made it the best-selling cigarette brand in the UK.
The July 11, 1691 issue of The Athenian Mercury is the oldest original publication in the Center’s collection….
The Center for the Study of Tobacco and Society and the University of Alabama are committed to web accessibility. CSTS is making an active effort to make our content as accessible as possible. Thank you for your patience during this important work.