Virgil Johnson Collection of Cigarette Packages
name: label: Creator
content: Brown and Williamson.
label: Creator
content: Johnson, Virgil
label: Creator
content: American Tobacco Company.
label: Creator
content: Benson and Hedges.
label: Creator
content: Philip Morris, Inc.
label: Creator
content: Lorillard.
label: Creator
content: Liggett & Myers Tobacco Company.
label: Creator
content: Reynolds, R. J.
topic: label: Topic
content: Packaging -- 1850-1900
label: Topic
content: Packaging -- 20th century
label: Topic
content: Tobacco -- 1850-2000
label: Topic
content: Tobacco -- 20th century
label: Topic
content: Cigarettes -- 1850-2000
label: Topic
content: Cigarettes -- 20th century
acqinfo: label: Provenance
content: The collection was donated to the Archives Center of the National Museum of American History in July 1998, by Mr. Virgil Johnson, a resident of Alexandria, Virginia.
label: Provenance
content: The collection was donated to the Archives Center of the National Museum of American History in July 1998, by Mr. Virgil Johnson, a resident of Alexandria, Virginia.
creator: label: Creator
content: Brown and Williamson.
label: Creator
content: Johnson, Virgil
label: Creator
content: American Tobacco Company.
label: Creator
content: Benson and Hedges.
label: Creator
content: Philip Morris, Inc.
label: Creator
content: Lorillard.
label: Creator
content: Liggett & Myers Tobacco Company.
label: Creator
content: Reynolds, R. J.
setName: label: See more items in
content: Virgil Johnson Collection of Cigarette Packages
abstract: label: Summary
content: As a teenager, Virgil Johnson [b.1918] became interested in the designs and symbols on cigarette packs like "Black Cat" and "White Roll", and he began actively collecting in the 1930s. His interest intensified during the 1940s when he was stationed in North Africa and across the Mediterranean region as a photographer with the U.S. Navy. Mr. Johnson collected cigarette packs for over fifty years, and was a member of the Cigarette Pack Collector's Association.

Approximately 6000 cigarette packages, foreign and American, arranged in 24 albums. Manufacturers include names such as those shown below.
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: As a teenager, Virgil Johnson [b.1918] became interested in the designs and symbols on cigarette packs like Black Cat and White Roll, and he began actively collecting in the 1930s.  His interest intensified during the 1940s when he was stationed in North Africa and across the Mediterranean region as a photographer with the U.S. Navy.  Mr. Johnson collected cigarette packs for over fifty years, and was a member of the Cigarette Pack Collector=s Association.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 25 Cubic feet (26 boxes)
unitdate: label: Date
content: circa 1890-1997
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives Center, National Museum of American History
identifier: label: Identifier
content: NMAH.AC.0645
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Albums
arrangement: label: Arrangement
content: The collection is divided into 3 series.

Series 1: Cigarette Packages

Series 2: Articles and Other Publications About Tobacco

Series 3: Books About Tobacco and Tobacco Collecting
processinfo: label: Processing Information
content: Collection processed by  Mimi Minnick, July 1998
genre_format: label: Genre/Form
content: Albums
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: The collection consists of approximately 6,000 cigarette packages, ca. 1890-1997, arranged in 24 albums. The cigarette packages offer a strong base for research into the categories of visual imagery created, associated with, and manipulated for the sale of tobacco products. Researchers interested in the history of design will also find these packages a useful source, as they reflect design modifications (in image, logo, typeface, and package features) over time for virtually every brand marketed in the U.S. and an enormous selection of those marketed overseas, by both U.S. and other global tobacco concerns.

Series 3: BOOKS ABOUT TOBACCO AND TOBACCO COLLECTING These titles have been transferred to NMAH Library.
relatedmaterial: label: Related Materials
content: The Archives Center is nationally recognized as a site in which to pursue research into the history of tobacco advertising. The Warshaw Collection (AC 60) include many thousands of tobacco advertisements and cigar box labels from the 19th and 20th centuries; the Ayer Collection (AC 59) includes advertising proofsheets for American Tobacco, Phillip Morris, R.J. Reynolds and other cigarette and cigar manufacturers since the 1870s. The Marlboro Collection (AC 198) includes print ads, company publications, and oral history interviews with tobacco industry and advertising agency personnel. The Walter Landor/Landor Associates Industrial Design Collection (AC 500) includes documentation on package design for numerous tobacco companies since the 1950s, and the newly acquired Sandra and Gary Baden Collection of Celebrity Endorsements in Advertising (AC 611) contains several hundred ads featuring movie stars, singers, politicians, and athletes promoting tobacco products since the 1890s.

4,000 cigarettes, also donated by Mr. Johnson, each contained in a screw top glass vial, were donated to the Center for Disease Control's Office of Smoking and Health in Atlanta, Georgia.
separatedmaterial: label: Separated Materials
content: Thirty (30) empty wood, metal, and plastic cigarette packs are also part of the Virgil Johnson Collection. They are housed with the Consumer Culture Collections in the Cultural History Division (now Division of Cultural and Community Life) which also holds several dozen cigarette packs from the Walter Landor/Landor Associates Industrial Design Collection (NMAH.AC.0500).