Center for the Study of Tobacco and Society
College of Community Health Sciences | University of Alabama
From the DirectorMissionParticipantsSupportArticlesNewspaper CommentariesExhibitionsAbstractsResearch PostersPresentationsFlyersVideosCollagesReleasesAcknowledgements
From the Director
Alan Blum, MD
Director
Professor and Gerald Leon Wallace, MD, Endowed Chair in Family Medicine
University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa
ablum@ua.edu
In July 2019 the University of Alabama Center for the Study of Tobacco and Society marked its 20th anniversary. As the founding director and the Gerald Leon Wallace, MD, Endowed Chair in Family Medicine, I am proud to report that 2018-2019 has been the most fulfilling and productive in the Center’s history.
In February, the Center’s digital archivist Kevin Bailey (Masters in Public History, University of North Alabama) was appointed collection manager, succeeding Mary Clare Johnson, MLIS, who accepted a position with the Alabama State Archives. Under their direction, and with the assistance of graduate students Mark Usry and Hannah Hurdle from the School of Library and Information Studies, we have accelerated the digitization of our vast historical collection on cigarette marketing, the tobacco industry and its allies, and the anti-smoking movement. The collection is divided into more than 50 themes, including“Tobacco Industry Sponsorship of Sports,” “Universities and the Tobacco Industry,” “Pharmacies and Tobacco,” “E-Cigarettes,” ”Hospitals and Smoking,” and “Women and Smoking.” This trove of material—the largest and most comprehensive at any university–consists of hundreds of thousands of rare, often ironic, and always compelling promotional artifacts; in-context advertisements; anti-smoking posters and stamps from around the world; tobacco industry shareholder reports and in-house publications; one-of-a-kind photographs; 50 years of original newspaper, trade press, and medical journal coverage of tobacco problems; books and pamphlets; editorial cartoons; correspondence and taped interviews with hundreds of anti-smoking activists, journalists, government officials, and industry executives.
Between 1999 and 2014, the Center produced eight exhibitions that were on view at museums across the country. Cartoonists Take Up Smoking, supported by the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists and the Herblock Foundation, was on view for one year at the National Museum of Health and Medicine in Washington, DC, where it was also seen by attendees at the World Conference on Tobacco or Health. Up in Smoke: The Flight Attendants’ Fight for Clean Air Aloft, was shown at the Lewis A. Turpin Museum of Aviation at the San Francisco International Airport and the Southern Museum of Flight. The Surgeon General vs. The Marlboro Man: Who Really Won? was on view in 2014 at the Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library (and supported by the American Cancer Society) after debuting at the Gorgas Library of the University of Alabama.
The decision to shift from museum exhibitions to online exhibitions was made in order to reach a global viewership. In June 2018 following the debut in April 2018 of the Center’s first online exhibition, Big Tobacco in the Big Apple: How New York City Became the Heart of the Tobacco Industry…and Anti-Smoking Activism, we released Smoking in the Balcony Only: When Movie Stars Sold Cigarettes. To accompany the exhibition, an original film of smoking scenes in movies from the 1930s to the 1950s, Puff Your Cares Away…, premiered at the annual conference of the Theatre Historical Society of America in Detroit.
- Of Mice and Menthol: The Targeting of Africa Americans by the Tobacco Industry, which was released in September, took three years to create. It is already being used in courses in public health.
- The Makin’s of a Nation: Tobacco and World War I was released in November to mark the centenary of Armistice Day. Kevin Bailey arranged with the director of the University of Alabama Chorus to record a song written in 1918 to help raise money to send cigarettes to the boys overseas. This exhibition has received special mention in a review in The Pharos, the journal of the Alpha Omega Alpha medical honor society.
Other exhibitions include
- Merry X-Ray and a Happy New Lung: When Santa Sold Cigarettes (December 2018),
- Wedded to Smoking (cigarette advertisements featuring newlyweds),
- Like Father Like Son (cigarette advertisements with Father’s Day themes),
- Museum Malignancy: Tobacco Industry Sponsorship of the Arts (July 2019),
- Silk Cut: Surrealism as Seduction (August 2019)
- The Unfiltered Truth: The American Medical Association Rewrites Tobacco History (October 2019).
The Center produced two original peer-reviewed research posters and four original peer-reviewed presentations for the National Conference on Tobacco or Health in Minneapolis.
Utilizing the lessons learned from nearly five decades of attempting to counter the use and promotion of tobacco products, in recent years I have mentored student research projects to address the parallel rise in tanning bed use and malignant melanoma in young women (The Tanning Bedlam Project); the increase in alcohol marketing targeted to college students; universities’ and high schools’ conflicted role in counteracting the increase in adolescent obesity; In October 2018, as the first Carlos Valbona, MD, Memorial Lecturer at the Texas Institute of Rehabilitation and Research I presented, Polio: Forgotten but Not Gone and to discuss the growing threat to public health by the anti-science, anti-vaccination movement and the re-emergence of once-eradicated infectious diseases In February 2019, I was the invited speaker at the Los Angeles Pediatrics Society’s quarterly meeting, where I spoke on the ABC’s of E-cigarettes. In May, I was also invited to speak on e-cigarettes at the annual conference of the American College Health Association. University of Alabama Catherine J. Randall Scholar and Computer-based Honors Program premedical student Tom Gruchala and I have created a second original research poster, as well as a website to raise awareness among university administrators, students, and physicians of the alarming rise in digital media addiction and adverse physical and mental health effects among college students.
I wish to thank the University of Alabama, the College of Community Health Sciences, and our benefactors, advisors, and participants for their ongoing support of this unique historical resource on tackling the single most preventable cause of death and disease of the 20th and 21st centuries.
Mission
The mission of the University of Alabama Center for Study of Tobacco and Society, founded by Alan Blum, MD in 1999, 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 serves as an international resource on tobacco issues.
Participants
Alan Blum, MD
Director
Professor, Department of Family Medicine
Gerald Leon Wallace, MD, Endowed Chair in Family Medicine
College of Community Health Sciences
Kevin Bailey, MA
Collections Manager
Digital Archivist
Eric Solberg, MS
Vice-President
University of Texas Health Sciences Center at Houston
Associate Dean
University of Texas Health Sciences Center at Houston Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences
Medical Activism Advisor
Edward Anselm, MD
Assistant Clinical Professor of Medicine
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Medical Director
EmblemHealth, New York City
Smoking Cessation Advisor
Robert Riter, PhD
Assistant Professor
School of Library and Information Studies
Archives Advisor
Support
Mrs. Celia Wallace, Alan Blum MD, and the portrait of Dr. and Mrs. Gerald Leon Wallace, at Springhill Medical Center, Mobile, Alabama. Dr. Wallace, founder of the medical center, was a compassionate and innovative leader in patient care.
Rick Richards, MD and Alan Blum, MD (along with Thomas Houston, MD) are awarded the Surgeon General’s Medallion in 1987 by Dr. C. Everett Koop, for their pioneering efforts to inspire the medical profession to counter the tobacco pandemic
The University of Alabama Center for the Study of Tobacco and Society is supported by grants from Mrs. Celia Wallace and the Richards Family Foundation. Mrs. Wallace is chair of the board of directors of Springhill Memorial Hospital in Mobile, Alabama, and a leading advocate for disease prevention and community health. Lee Wallace, PhD, son of Dr. and Mrs. Gerald Wallace, is the chief executive officer of Southern Medical Health Systems the parent company of Springhill Medical Center. Dr. Rick Richards of Augusta, Georgia, is a family physician and medical activist who has created innovative health care cost-containment programs and health-related companies.
Articles About CSTS
Center for the Study of Tobacco and Society: Multimedia Exhibitions
Review
The Pharos
Jack Coulehan, MD
Summer, 2019
Put down that smart phone at least for a little while
Article
Tuscaloosa News
Larry Clayton
January 28, 2019
WHO calls on governments to enforce bans on all tobacco or e-cigarette advertising and sponsorship in sports events
Article
ECigIntelligence
David Palacios Rubio
2019
Why is the British Museum still accepting tobacco sponsorship?
Article
The Art Newspaper
Martin Bailey, Helen Stoilas
April 2, 2019
Lighting Up Electronically
Article
On Rounds
Leslie Zganjar
Spring, 2019
Scholarly Activism: The Center for the Study of Tobacco and Society
Article
On Rounds
Leslie Zganjar
Spring, 2019
E-cigarette us rises in young adults as combustible cigarette use declines
Article
The Cancer Letter
Alex Carolan
September 27, 2019
The Personal Experience of Polio
Article
TIRR Memorial Hermann
October, 2019
UA Professor Shares Tips On Buying And Applying Sunscreen
Article
WVUA
Savannah Bullard
July 2, 2019
State has 297 million invested in tobacco
Article
Star Tribune
Jessie Van Berkel
August 8, 2019
UA professor talks July 4th skin protection tips
Article
WBRC
Ugochi Iloka
July, 2019
Museum Malignancy What the Sacklers and Philip Morris have in common
Article
Alan Blum, MD
The Cancer Letter
October 18, 2019
Op-Eds
Who Should Gain from Medical Data?
Opinion
Wall Street Journal
Alan Blum, MD
November 29, 2018
Why is Meharry taking money from Juul Labs?
Opinon
The Tennessean
Alan Blum MD
July 7, 2019
An anti-crash course for college students: Digital Media Addiction 101
Opinon
The Birmingham News
Alan Blum MD, Thomasz Gruchala
August 19, 2019
Exhibitions
▼ Click the images below to visit the Exhibitions ▼
Tanning Bedlam
Exhibition
January, 2019
Baseball & Tobacco
Exhibition
February 2019
A Filter Made of Tobacco Itself – Kentucky Kings
Spotlight
March 2019
Digital Media Addiction
Exhibition
March 2019
Museum Malignancy Tobacco Industry Sponsorship of the Arts
Exhibition
2019
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Like Father, Like Son: Smoking as a Family Tradition
Exhibition
June, 2019
Silk Cut: Surrealism as Subversion
Exhibition
July, 2019
Camel Artist’s Packs
Exhibition
August, 2019
Touchdown Tobacco
Exhibition
November, 2019
Kids Candy and Cigarettes
Exhibition
December, 2019
Abstracts
Minorities and Smoking: Of Mice an Menthol The Targeting of African Americans By the Tobacco Industry
Abstract
Alan Blum, MD
National Conference on Tobacco or Health
2019
Smoke ’em if you got ’em: The failure of the military to curb cigarette smoking among servicemen and women
Abstract
Alan Blum, MD
National Conference on Tobacco or Health
2019
Ongoing Relationships Between the Tobacco Industry and Universities: An Insidious Obstacle to Tobacco Control
Abstract
Alan Blum, MD
National Conference on Tobacco or Health
2019
The Philip Morris Genome Project: A Strategy for Tracking and Addressing Troubling Collaborations with the World’s Largest Cigarette Company
Abstract
Alan Blum, MD
National Conference on Tobacco or Health
2019
Enmeshed in Metaphor: The Scientific, Philosophical, and Satirical Essays of Samuel Vaisrub, MD
Abstract
Alan Blum, MD
Creating Space IX: April 12th-13th, 2019, Hamilton, ON
2019
Research Posters
Digital Media Addiction: An Emerging Problem Among College / Students Zombie Apocalypse or Simply a Generation in Denial?
Poster
Tomasz Gruchala, Alan Blum MD
2019
Mental Health Consequences of Digital Media Addiction: Is Technology Diminishing Our Happiness?
Poster
Tomasz Gruchala, Alan Blum MD
2019
From Anti-Smoking Activist to Archivist… and Back Again: How Exhibitions on the History of Tobacco Control Are Helping to Educate a New Generation / Highlights of Six Exhibitions
Poster
Alan Blum MD
2019
The Filter Fraud: Debunking the Myth of Safer as a Key New Strategy of Tobacco Control
Poster
Alan Blum MD, Thomas E. Novotny MD MPH
2019
Presentations
Approaching the Patient Who Smokes: The Family Physician’s Role in Successful Smoking Cessation and Relapse Prevention
Presentation
Alan Blum MD
September 10, 2019
A Bedside
Conversation with Wilder Penfield
Presentation
Alan Blum MD
May 13, 2018
Enmeshed in Metaphor: The Scientific, Philosophical, and Satirical Essays of Samuel Vaisrub, MD
Presentation
Alan Blum MD
April 12, 2019
The ABC’s of Smoking and E-Cigarettes: What we need to know and do about the number one addiction on campus
Presentation
Alan Blum MD
May 29, 2018
The Fading Art of Observation
Presentation
Alan Blum MD
July 30, 2019
Flyers
Minorities and Smoking: Of Mice an Menthol The Targeting of African Americans By the Tobacco Industry
Flyer
National Conference on Tobacco or Health
Alan Blum, MD
August 27, 2019
Smoke ’em if you got ’em: The failure of the military to curb cigarette smoking among servicemen and women
Flyer
National Conference on Tobacco or Health
Alan Blum, MD
August 27, 2019
Ongoing Relationships Between the Tobacco Industry and Universities: An Insidious Obstacle to Tobacco Control
Flyer
National Conference on Tobacco or Health
Alan Blum, MD
August 28, 2019
Folk art? Outsider art? Raw art? Visionary art? The Extraordinary Scrolls of Frank Calloway
Flyer
The Art of Medicine Rounds
Alan Blum, MD
April 4, 2019
The Fading Art of Observation
Flyer
The Art of Medicine Rounds
Alan Blum, MD
March 7, 2019
Seeing Patients: The Sketchiest Details
Flyer
The Art of Medicine Rounds
Alan Blum, MD
August 1, 2019
An Afternoon of Advocacy & Artistry in Family Medicine
Flyer
Resident Grand Rounds
Alan Blum, MD
August 23, 2018
TIRR Memorial Hermann Offers One of the Nation’s Premiere Post-Polio Clinics
Flyer
Carlos Vallbona Lecture Series
TIRR Memorial Hermann
October 11, 2018
The Fifteenth Annual J. Willis Hurst History of Medicine Symposium
Flyer
Emory Medical Alumni Weekend
Alan Blum, MD
October 20, 2018
The Fifteenth Annual J. Willis Hurst History of Medicine Symposium
Flyer
Emory Medical Alumni Weekend
Alan Blum, MD
October 20, 2018
Videos
Promotional Video for the Center for the Study of Tobacco and Society
Collages
I love Joe Camel!
Collage
Cartoonists Take Up Smoking
Kevin Bailey
2019
Old Golden Age of Cinema
Collage
Smoking in the Balcony Only: When Movie Stars Sold Cigarettes
Kevin Bailey
2019
Releases
UA Professor’s Exhibition Bites into Tobacco’s Influence in the Big Apple
Media Release
Inside UA
May 9, 2018
Online Exhibition Examines Tobacco Companies’ Targeting of Minorities
Media Release
Inside UA
October 30, 2018
Silk Cut: Surrealism as Subversion
Media Release
August 23, 2019
UA Center for the Study of Tobacco and Society Marks the 100th Anniversary of the End of World War I with an Exhibition on Smoking in the Military
Media Release
November 11, 2018
University of Alabama Center for the Study of Tobacco and Society releases – Museum Malignancy: Tobacco Industry Sponsorship of the Arts
Media Release
July 4, 2019
Like Father Like Son: University of Alabama Tobacco and Society Posts New Exhibition on Smoking as a Family Tradition
Media Release
June 14, 2019
UA Tobacco Center Exhibition Highlights Ads That Promoted Yuletide Smoking
Media Release
December 17 2018
Acknowledgements
Richard Friend, MD
Dean, College of Community Health Sciences, (CCHS)
Melani Harrell
Administrative Secretary
Department of Family, Rural, and Internal Medicine, CCHS
Allison Arendale, MPA, CPA
Director of Financial Affairs, CCHS
Johnathan Bean, PhD
Professor of History
Southern Illinois University, Carbondale
Leslie Zganjar, MPA
Director of Communications, CCHS
Nelle Williams, MLIS
Director, Medical Library, CCHS
Andrea Wright
Medical Librarian, CCHS
Pamela Ewing, MLIS candidate
Medical Librarian, CCHS
Jacqueline Cochrane
Library Assistant, CCHS
Benjamin Rapaport
Antiquarian Tobacciana
Sam, David, Leon and Doris Blum
Steven MacCall, PhD
Associate Professor
School of Library and Information Studies
Greg Randall
CCHS Webmaster
Craig Remington
Cartographic Lab Supervisor
Department of Geography
The University of Alabama
Allison Leitner
Director of Advancement
University of Alabama
Nathan Schachtman, Esq.
Science and Law Advisor