Museum display features development of tobacco use
Now you can learn about the history of tobacco from Columbus to Cantley at the CarmichaelStewart House Museum.
“The display talks about the history of smoking tobacco from when it was given to Columbus up to 1882 when it was industrialized,” said James Lee, student curator at the museum.
The Carmichael-Stewart House Museum is one of the most history-packed houses in Pictou County, filled with items from all different time periods.
“Most of the items are of Pictou County origin or international origin with a Pictou County story,” Lee said. This summer, one of their feature displays is a collection of various tobacco instruments that they’ve collected over the years, he said.
“We assembled the exhibit from a bunch of various items we had in the museum,” the student curator said.
The display features a cigar cutter dating to the early 1900s that was owned by Thomas Cantley, a senator and MP who represented Pictou County in the Conservative party for 19 years.
It also offers information on King James VI of Scotland and I of England and his paper, “A Counterblast To Tobacco,” which he wrote detailing the dangers and sinfulness of tobacco.
Also in the display is a tobacco guillotine owned by Stewart and George Clark, a tobacco humidor, a snuffbox from Scotland, and a cigarette roller.
Lee said the exhibit took about two weeks to prepare, from sorting through the inventory of the museum, to researching and typing up that information, to finally setting out the display.
One of the other focuses of the summer has been on a Scottish heritage exhibit, he said.
Books detailing family crests are available for people to look through, along with a wall hanging featuring many of the crests of the area.