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Coffin Nails: The Tobacco Controversy in the 19th Century

Culled from the archives of Harper's Weekly, this online trove of visual material and articles deals with the controversy over the alleged health benefits and potential hazards of smoking. The site begins with an orienting essay by John Adler, the publisher of HarpWeek. The compilation itself is quite revealing, pointing out that, as early as 1862, tobacco addiction was a recognized problem, and that the tobacco industry responded to public health concerns by marketing tobacco products that supposedly contained "no nicotine." The site is divided into five major sections, including ones dealing with smoking habits of the young, the "bad behavior" personified by those who smoked excessively, and "healthful" smoking products. All of these sections contain ample selections of news articles from Harper's (usually available as a scanned image and with transcripted text) and the wonderful cartoons of Thomas Nast. Overall, this site will be of great interest to those looking to see how Americans felt about this "noxious weed" in the last-half of the nineteenth century.
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Date of Scout Publication
February 28th, 2003
Date Of Record Creation
April 8th, 2003 at 10:57am
Date Of Record Release
April 8th, 2003 at 10:57am
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