Tobacco.org

• The Object at Hand - Pack Rat 

More than a half-century later, Johnson, 84, offered the fruits of his long obsession to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, turning over about 6,000 cigarette packages, classified into 24 albums by manufacturer and country of origin from Afghanistan to Venezuela.

The collection, says Smithsonian curator David Shayt, "encompasses the vast acreage of tobacco history. What Virgil has done is to display the face of the tobacco industry as it presented itself to the consumer, in album after album, page after page, in a very organized, antiseptic and dispassionate way. He chronicles tobacco’s rise and fall in a remarkably small space." . .

While cigarette manufacturers added lilac and rose perfume to attract female smokers, other additives were geared to both sexes. The Johnson collection documents cigarettes laced with rum, maple syrup, vermouth and honey. . .

Postwar America saw the rise of Atom cigarettes with translucent tips banded in orange, green and gold, evoking the fluorescence of uranium. . .

In addition to the Smithsonian collection, Johnson also donated about 4,000 cigarettes to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for future research on tobacco and its uses. Sealed in glass vials, the cigarettes ensure that Johnson’s lifelong avocation will not go up in smoke.

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Atom cigarettes.
Post-war brand with translucent tips banded in orange, green and gold, evoking the fluorescence of uranium, according to an entertaining article on Virgil Johnson's huge tobacco-nalia collection at the Smithsonian. Johnson also donated about 4,000 cigarettes to the CDC for future research.