Tobacco Press Photo Archive

[woodsroad]

Over the years, I've collected a few vintage photographs pertaining to tobacco. I've been cleaning up my office and recently came upon a few that I thought you might enjoy. I've scanned both the front and back, since the back often has the date the photo was made, the publication date (several, in some cases) and other information pertinent to the photograph. It's always distressing interesting to see how some blind news editor thought the photo should be cropped. To be fair, they usually had to make the photo fit an existing "hole" in the layout, a practice that continues at many newspapers up to today. Unfortunately, you will also see the remnants of scotch tape or glued paper on the back of some photos where the "cutline" or caption information once was. "No Cut" means that no caption information was provided. In my time in newspapers, a photographer would never submit a photo without full "who, what, when, where, how and why" and every recognizable person identified, left to right, with name, age, place of residence and their connection to the story.

So, in no particular order, here you go:

 

[The Benedictine]

I'd love to have some of these framed. They are spectacular.

 

[woodsroad]

 

[woodsroad]

-30-

 

[woodsroad]

I bought most of these photos years ago off eBay. The site that was selling them, www.newspaperphotographs.com, no longer exists, but my educated guess says that they bought the libraries of newspapers that were downsizing or closing. When I was at The Philadelphia Inquirer, working as a photographer, the library was staffed by professionals whose job it was to collect and catalog all the material that went into assembling the paper, as well as to clip and file every story from every edition. it was a massive job. When my wife, whom also worked there, was researching her family history, she was able to call the library and ask for the file on a rather notorious member of her mother's family. It was awesome. The entire library staff was terminated about ten years ago. Today, most of the photo archive from the Inquirer is housed at the Temple University Urban Archives, awaiting some generous soul to write them a check so that they can digitize and index it all. Sadly, many other newspaper's photo archives, negatives and all, went directly into the dumpster.

 

[georged]

No need for one of these ---








...or one of these ---








when you have a woodsroad!

 

[JoburgB2]

So intriguing. Compelling viewing. Thank you for sharing.

 

[PaulRVA]

Man you always post the most interesting compilations.
Thank for sharing these.

 

[sablebrush52]

Loved the photographs! I decided to play a little game, guessing in what decade a particular photograph was taken, based on whatever tells I could spot, clothing style, look of the print, etc, before checking the actual date. I'm embarrassed to admit I totally missed one of them.

 

[woodsroad]

Which one tripped you up, Jesse?

 

[sablebrush52]

Which one tripped you up, Jesse?

It was the one of someone penning entries into the My Mixture book. There just wasn't anything that pointed to a specific time, but I sure didn't guess that it was the 60's.

Most of them were easy to spot, some I went back and forth over the decade, made a guess that turned out, to my surprise, to be correct. There are obvious elements, like clothing and hair styles, There are other elements that are harder to explain, like the feel of the grain, acutance, contrast, that sort of thing. I suspect some of it was just dumb luck.

In the course of doing my visual effects work I was called upon to duplicate the "look" of photography from different time periods, which necessitated studying a LOT of photographs to get some sense of an overall feel for a period, and some of that is just still part of my instinct all these years later.

Bet you the next time I'll miss most, if not all, of them.

 

[woodsroad]

The My Mixture” photo is 1937.

 

[sablebrush52]

The My Mixture” photo is 1937.

Well, shit! I was bouncing back and forth between the 30's and the 40's and then looked at the image attached which had a 1961 date stamp.

 

[huntertrw]

Do I recall correctly that the book shown below was actually discarded by Dunhill?

 

[huntertrw]

The My Mixture” photo is 1937.

The fact that the writer was using a dip-pen was a give-away to the early date.

 

[woodsroad]

Do I recall correctly that the book shown below was actually discarded by Dunhill?

View attachment 406772

Judging by the entry numbers on the index tabs, I suspect there were multiple volumes to the “My Mixture” tome.

 

[Brendan]

That second photo is an absolute cracker, deserves to be blown up, framed and hung in every smoking lounge across the globe.

 

[anotherbob]

View attachment 406731

View attachment 406732

View attachment 406733

View attachment 406734

-30-

thanks

 

[Hillcrest]

The fact that the writer was using a dip-pen was a give-away to the early date.

That looks like a lever fill Waterman from the 20's not a 'dip' pen ... could be anytime from 20s to 60s. IMHO

 

[huntertrw]

Good eye, Hillcrest!