Tobacco smoked at the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis?

[Captain Granger]

Pipe smoker and writer here. I'm needing some of you old students of this great hobby to search your recollections of anything grandpa said. What sort of tobacco (types / specific brands) was being smoked by Americans at the turn of the 20th century?

 

[Captain Granger]

Students? Nay... MASTERS.

Forgive me.

 

[Searock Fan]

Pipe smoker and writer here. I'm needing some of you old students of this great hobby to search your recollections of anything grandpa said. What sort of tobacco (types / specific brands) was being smoked by Americans at the turn of the 20th century?

To me pipe smoking is not a hobby, it's a life style.

 

[canucklehead]

 

[Searock Fan]

View attachment 163794

A real lesson in firearms safety.

 

[AJL67]

Paging @Briar Lee ?

 

[edger]

Don’t know, but my guess would be Edgeworth.

 

[Briar Lee]

I grew up with old men still talking about the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis. My grandfather and grandmother both remembered it and raved about it.

X-rays, 'fax machines' and ice cream cones debut at 1904 World's Fair

Courtesy Missouri Historical Society Photographs and Prints Collections.Lee DeForest (seated) sending wireless telegraph message from the Louisiana Purchase Exposition. Photograph, 1904.April 30, 2004, marks the 100th anniversary of the 1904 World's Fair, an event that showcased science...

source.wustl.edu

It’s my understanding modern, moist, flavored, canned tobacco began about 1907 with RJ Reynold’s Prince Albert.

Pipe shops sold blends that included cavendish tobacco in 1904.

But unless they patronized a real smoke shop, virtually all pipe smokers then smoked tobacco packed in cloth sacks.


Making those sacks was a cottage industry in the South.
Tobacco Bag Stringing Operations in North Carolina and Virginia - https://dc.lib.unc.edu/cdm/abouttobacco/collection/tobacco_bag

 

[nolan613]

Both my father and grandfather smoked Half & Half without exception...

 

[Steddy]

A real lesson in firearms safety.

Haha first thing I thought of.

 

[Briar Lee]

Both my father and grandfather smoked Half & Half without exception...

Half and Half was new in the twenties.

Here’s a 1927 magazine ad.

Before the 1907 Prince Albert can, smoking tobacco came packaged in cloth sacks.

When I started smoking fifty years ago, I could still buy Bull Durham, Our Advertiser, Country Gentleman, and Old Hillside in cloth sacks.

The only one I miss is Bull Durham.

Historic Bull Durham "Makin's' Herded Off Tobacco Shelves

In case you're among those few smokers who don't use anything but Bull Durham "roll-your-own" tobacco ... Congratulations! You've just quit. The brand has been discontinued, and if there are any rema…

www.oklahoman.com

 

[canucklehead]

Half and Half was new in the twenties.

Here’s a 1927 magazine ad.

View attachment 163907Before the 1907 Prince Albert can, smoking tobacco came packaged in cloth sacks.

When I started smoking fifty years ago, I could still buy Bull Durham, Our Advertiser, Country Gentleman, and Old Hillside in cloth sacks.

The only one I miss is Bull Durham.

Historic Bull Durham "Makin's' Herded Off Tobacco Shelves

In case you're among those few smokers who don't use anything but Bull Durham "roll-your-own" tobacco ... Congratulations! You've just quit. The brand has been discontinued, and if there are any rema…

www.oklahoman.com

Although the company claimed the formula was older, Half and Half was made by the American Tobacco Company in 1909 by mixing Lucky Strike (burley) and Buckingham cut plug (bright). The Lucky Strike logo was part of the label until 1939.

 

[nolan613]

Although the company claimed the formula was older, Half and Half was made by the American Tobacco Company in 1909 by mixing Lucky Strike (burley) and Buckingham cut plug (bright). The Lucky Strike logo was part of the label until 1939.

View attachment 163932

Lived in Durham for over a decade and am very familiar with the American Tobacco Company and the history. Tobacco and the Duke family were and still are a very big part of the city of Durham.

 

[canucklehead]

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[canucklehead]

Lived in Durham for over a decade and am very familiar with the American Tobacco Company and the history. Tobacco and the Duke family were and still are a very big part of the city of Durham.

 

[Peter Turbo]

Apparently the recipe for Wilkes Surburgs Crystal Palace dates back to before the American Civil War so maybe something like that? 1859 it says.

Hell of a blend as well.

 

[sablebrush52]

It being a World's Fair, there could have been tobaccos from Great Britain, like Three Nuns, Capstan, and perhaps from either Gawith, Gawith and Hoggarth, Gallahers, Germain's or one of the other fine old British makers.

 

[mso489]

Iwan Ries, the Chicago pipe and tobacco shop, was founded in 1857, so their in-house historian would probably have a record of what blends were sold during those early decades. They have some now-classic blends, like Three Star Blue, but I have no certainty that blend goes back that far, likely not.

 

[mso489]

At a whaling museum in up-state N.Y., there was a "typical" sea chest of a whaling ship sailor in the 19th Century that featured a drawstring bag of tobacco. I think that was the packaging of the time. Tobacco was relatively expensive at the time, so was a luxury. The museum type cast the MM hardwood pipe as the sailor's tobacco pipe, which though not historically accurate, was probably not a bad choice generically. Maybe a clay would have been better.

 

[Briar Lee]

Our Advertiser and Country Gentleman fifty years ago came in two sizes of cloth sacks.

The small ones were 15 cents and 1 1/2 ounces. There were larger sacks, maybe eight ounces, for 65 cents. I wish now I’d have bought a big sack.

I preferred Country Gentleman.

Bull Durham came in 3/4 ounce little sacks for 15 cents, and it seemed to be only for cigarettes.

Old Hillside was strong burley, made by Stoker’s. It came in 1 1/2 ounce sacks, and outlasted them all. I bought a sack maybe twenty years ago when it was discontinued. I still have some occasionally.

I just bought an unopened small sack of Our Advertiser for $10 delivered.

Let’s see how good it keeps?