A Simple Leaf and American History

Tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) is one of a number of plants that colonists discovered in the New World and exported to Europe and elsewhere. For millennia, the indigenous people of the Americas used tobacco and it played an integral part in their cultures. Usually, tobacco was used for ceremonial and religious purposes and abuse of the plant was discouraged.

 Europeans developed a taste for tobacco before the establishment of the first colonies. Christopher Columbus received a gift of tobacco during his first journey to the New World. He and his crew learned during later voyages the uses that the native peoples had for the dried leaf. Columbus and his men brought tobacco to Spain where smoking the leaf became popular and tobacco use spread across Europe.

Tobacco became the staple crop in early European colonies in North America and part of the fabric of colonial life. Tobacco was processed, packaged and sold in a variety of ways, and each type of tobacco product spurred the development of a range of paraphernalia related to its use.

As the commercial tobacco industry grew and developed, its products followed the wave of settlement moving westward across the continent. The objects in this exhibit reflect the various themes related to the packaging and marketing of tobacco in the American frontier.