Research Guides: Archives: Tobacco History & Culture : Archive Sources

Primary Sources (Archives)

This guide is an overview of resources about the history & culture of tobacco products. Yearbooks and other campus publications were heavily sponsored by cigarette, pipe, and tobacco ads. Images and documents about smoking as part of the campus / student culture are also available.

WashU Yearbooks (list of years published)
The 1934-35 yearbook especially included several full-page color cigarette ads. Also, "smoker" social events are listed in various early yearbooks (pre-1930s)
Student Handbooks (list of years available)
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Guides about campus, sometimes called "the Freshman Bible," and print-editions of "Bearings" include rules for students about smoking, and how those rules differed for men and women.
Other Student Publications (list of titles and years)
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See especially:
"The Dirge" - a campus humor magazine published from 1919 - 1934 included many tobacco ads, and some jokes about smoking / tobacco use and "Eliot" - a general interest campus magazine published from 1939 - 1947 included many tobacco ads, including many in full color
Student Life Newspapers (see below for more information)
included large cigarette ads through the 1950s

Student Life Newspaper

Note: No index exists for student newspapers. Options to access the issues include:

At Olin Library (microfilm): 1878 - 1986
* Advanced microfilm machines (level B downstairs)
* Can save pages as pdf files (bring a flash drive).
*Available anytime Olin Library is open.
At Special Collections (microfilm) 1988 - 2001
* Request microfilm at Special Collections, Olin Library Level 1
* Can save pages as pdf files (bring a flash drive).
Request for use at Special Collections: 1878 - present
* Original, hard copy issues available for special use only
*Request issues for use in reading room at Special Collections
Online: most current issue

School of Medicine - Becker Archives

A smoking machine used by Dr. Evarts Graham to test cancer risks in mice.

(Cover image from 1954 Alumni Bulletin)

Contact the Becker Archives at the WashU School of Medicine for more information about this collection

Dr Evarts A. Graham Papers
This archival collection is located at the Bernard Becker Library, 7th floor, School of Medicine campus. Contact the Becker Archive to learn more.

Secondary Sources

Books to borrow from the library

Soap, Sex, and Cigarettes by Juliann Sivulka
Call Number: HF5813 U6 S55 1997
ISBN: 0534515932
Publication Date: 1997-03-20
Advertising the American Dream by Roland Marchand
Call Number: HF5813 U6 M26 1985 c.2
ISBN: 0520058852
Publication Date: 1986-09-18
Advertising and the Transformation of American Society, 1865-1920 by James D. Norris
Call Number: HF5813 U6 N67 1990
ISBN: 0313268010
Publication Date: 1990-10-24
Those Were the Good Old Days: A Happy Look at American Advertising, 1880-1930. by Edgar R. Jones
Call Number: HF5813 U6 J6
ISBN: B0006AW5C0
Publication Date: 1959
Advertising to the American Woman, 1900-1999 by Daniel D. Hill
Call Number: HF5813.U6 H55 2002
ISBN: 0814208908
Publication Date: 2002-02-01

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