Up in smoke

"Cartoonists Take Up Smoking," retraces the 40-year battle over the use and promotion of cigarettes since the publication of the landmark Surgeon General's report on smoking and health in 1964. The exhibition addresses complacency on the part of organized medicine, politicians, and the mass media in ending the tobacco pandemic.

"Smoking" features 55 original editorial illustrations by more than 50 nationally known newspaper cartoonists and is supplemented by various related items, from the original newspaper headlines that inspired the cartoons to advertisements promoting the health benefits of lighting up. Also on display are several artifacts, as well as two preserved lungs--one showing the ill effects of smoking and the other a healthy lung.

In their artist's statement, several of the cartoonists relate how family members have suffered from smoking-induced illnesses. For instance, David Fitzsimmons of The Arizona Star comments, "My mother and father died within a month of each other because of their inability to overcome their addiction to cigarettes. I understand firsthand the impact of tobacco on the lives of people."

For half a century, the cartoonist most unapologetically opposed to smoking and the tobacco industry was Herb Block of The Washington Post, whose work appears in the show. However, not all cartoonists have depicted tobacco as an evil weed. Indeed, several could be described as anti-anti-smoking, in part based on their belief in the freedom to choose. Clay Bennett of the Christian Science Monitor wonders if there should be laws against nagging and finger-wagging at smokers. Sean Delonas of the New York Post foresees the advent of a smoke police force roaming sidewalks and parks.

The exhibition is curated from material at the University of Alabama Center for the Study of Tobacco and Society, which Alan Blum--awarded the Surgeon General's Medallion in 1988 by C. Everett Koop--founded and directs. It holds one of the largest sociocultural archives on tobacco, including more than 300 original editorial cartoon artworks on smoking-related themes.

"The wide-ranging controversies surrounding tobacco are captured in the cartoons, from the misguided quest for a safe cigarette to the targeting of tobacco advertising to women and minority groups," Blum notes. "Cartoons on smoking have had an impact at both the local and national levels. Editorial cartoons practically laughed Joe Camel out of town and helped pass countless clean indoor air laws."

"The assembled cartoonists' work rival any scalpel we have on display for their sharpness," says Adrianne Noe, director of the National Museum of Health and Medicine. "They span the humorous to the deadly serious and will allow visitors to relive a public medical and political debate about a health issue that continues to grasp us all."

"Cartoonists Take Up Smoking" will be on view through Feb. 28, 2007, at the National Museum of Health and Medicine, Washington, D.C.

COPYRIGHT 2006 Society for the Advancement of Education
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning