“Smoking as Nonchalantly as Men”: A Tobacco-Based Material Culture Study of National Geographic Magazine, 1888–1935

In the November 1934 issue of the National Geographic Magazine, a Percy Watt Hood advertisement boasts that their book cabinet is “an ideal way to keep your GEOGRAPHICS,” stating “your Geographic Magazines are unique -- never thrown away” [See National Geographic, 66, no. 5 (1934): 675]. With circulation reaching 1.3 million homes and schools by the time of that issue’s publication, National Geographic Magazine permeated American society and culture as one of the most influential scientific journals through the early twentieth century. The National Geographic Society formed during the pinnacle of late Victorian, middle-class interest in natural history, and photography itself was a rising science, believed to be a highly credible source of information. Their central publication, National Geographic Magazine, gave photographic exposure of other cultures and races to a white, middle-class American readership, but the photographs did not encourage readers to think outside of racial and gender stereotypes.

During the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries, tobacco played a significant role in American culture as well. The social rules and stereotypes surrounding tobacco often centered around racial and gendered consumption. Tobacco, especially cigarettes, faced backlash from progressive groups such as the International Anti-Cigarette League, who lobbied filmmakers to remove depictions of women smoking in movies. While it is unclear if any of these groups ever successfully lobbied the National Geographic Society, the early presidents of the Society stated that their earnings were from selling memberships and genteel advertisements that did not feature alcohol and tobacco.

Between 1888 and 1935, the National Geographic Society published 535 issues, and 157 of those issues contained at least one photograph of an individual with tobacco (through recreational use or in production) for a total of 287 photographs. These photographs reveal the complex relationships between race, gender, tobacco, and the views of numerous editors, authors, and photographers who influenced the white, middle-class American perception of the world. With our contemporary concerns over biased information distributed through mass media, understanding the historical precedent of trusted sources disseminating subjective facts to the American public is both relevant and critical to current debates. This tobacco-based material culture study of National Geographic Magazine provides a new lens to analyze the stereotypes and ethnocentrism within the pages of “your GEOGRAPHICS.”