scholarly journals A Flea’s Tumescence: Alan Blum, MD, on Exhibitions, Activism, Irony, and Collaboration

2021 ◽  
pp. 000276422110031
Author(s):  
David Lee ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Tobacco Industry ◽  
University Of Alabama ◽  
National Organization ◽  
Tobacco Marketing ◽  
Brick And Mortar ◽  
Alan Blum ◽  
The University

In November 2020, I spoke with Alan Blum, MD, scholar, collector, curator, exhibitor, activist, and director of the University of Alabama Center for the Study of Tobacco and Society (CSTS). He has been creating tobacco-themed exhibitions since the 1980s—in brick-and-mortar as well as digital settings—based on a prodigious collection of tobacco-related artifacts. Before joining CSTS, as founder of Doctors Ought to Care, a national organization of concerned and outspoken physicians, Blum satirized and protested at tobacco industry–sponsored events. In addition to being an avid museumgoer, he closely follows the tobacco industry’s sponsorship of museums and exhibitions. This article contains excerpts from our interview, with Blum addressing the dynamism of tobacco marketing, the irony of CSTS exhibitions, his recollections of past exhibitions, and what he regards as the complicity of other industries and professions. Be advised that the exhibitions Blum curates and the views he expresses “may be hazardous to people’s preconceptions.”

Exhibitions as Public Health Interventions: The University of Alabama Center for the Study of Tobacco and Society

2021 ◽  
pp. 000276422110108
Author(s):  
Robert B. Riter ◽  
Kevin Bailey ◽  
Jeff Hirschy
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Tobacco Industry ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Public Health Intervention ◽  
Public Understanding ◽  
Cultural Institutions ◽  
University Of Alabama ◽  
Control And Prevention ◽  
Promotional Efforts ◽  
The University

Can exhibitions of artifacts from the tobacco industry, its allies and critics, act as a public health intervention? The University of Alabama Center for the Study of Tobacco and Society is a curatorial and research center dedicated to the creation of exhibitions on the tobacco industry and its allies, the marketing of cigarettes and other tobacco products, and the efforts to counteract the use and promotion of cigarettes throughout the 20th century to the present day (Blum, 1994, p. 8). Physical and digital exhibitions provide social and historical context to increase public understanding of a deadly product which, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, kills 1,300 Americans a day. University of Alabama Center for the Study of Tobacco and Society collects “communication artifacts” of the tobacco industry, from ubiquitous advertisements to subtler promotional efforts such as financial support for museums and other cultural institutions. This summary of the center’s work spotlights archives, curated and made public through exhibitions.

Exhibitions as Public Health Interventions: The University of Alabama Center for the Study of Tobacco and Society

2021 ◽  
pp. 000276422110031
Author(s):  
Robert B. Riter ◽  
Kevin Bailey ◽  
Jeff Hirschy
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Tobacco Industry ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Public Health Intervention ◽  
Public Understanding ◽  
Cultural Institutions ◽  
University Of Alabama ◽  
Control And Prevention ◽  
Promotional Efforts ◽  
The University

Can exhibitions of artifacts from the tobacco industry, its allies and critics, act as a public health intervention? The University of Alabama Center for the Study of Tobacco and Society is a curatorial and research center dedicated to the creation of exhibitions on the tobacco industry and its allies, the marketing of cigarettes and other tobacco products, and the efforts to counteract the use and promotion of cigarettes throughout the 20th century to the present day. Physical and digital exhibitions provide social and historical context to increase public understanding of a deadly product which, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, kills 1,300 Americans a day. Center for the Study of Tobacco and Society collects “communication artifacts” of the tobacco industry, from ubiquitous advertisements to subtler promotional efforts such as financial support for museums and other cultural institutions. This summary of the center’s work spotlights archives, curated and made public through exhibitions.

The Oral History Tradition at the University of Alabama in Huntsville

2006 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne M. Coleman ◽  
Robert L. Middleton ◽  
Charles A. Lundquist ◽  
David L. Christensen
Keyword(s):  
Oral History ◽  
University Of Alabama ◽  
The University

EXPLORING THE CONTENTS OF THE BALTIMORE AND OHIO RAILROAD ANNUAL REPORTS: 1827–1856

2000 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gary John Previts ◽  
William D. Samson
Keyword(s):  
Annual Report ◽  
Annual Reports ◽  
Corporate Disclosure ◽  
University Of Alabama ◽  
Complete Collection ◽  
Archival Collection ◽  
Annual Reporting ◽  
The University ◽  
Disclosure Practice ◽  
Corporate Practice

In 1995, a nearly complete collection of the annual reports of the earliest interstate and common carrier railroad in the U. S., the Baltimore and Ohio (B&O), was rediscovered in the archival collection at the Bruno Library of the University of Alabama. Dating from the company's inception in 1827 to its acquisition by the Chessie System in 1962, the reports present a unique opportunity for the exploration, study, and analysis of early U.S. corporate disclosure practice. This paper represents a study of the annual report information made publicly available by one of America's first railroads, and one of the first modern U.S. corporations. In this paper, early annual reports of the B&O which detail its formation, construction, and operation are catalogued as to content and evaluated. Mandated in the corporate charter, the annual “statement of affairs” presented by the management and directors to stockholders is studied as a process and as a product that instigated the institutional corporate practice recognized today as “annual reporting.” Using a single company methodology for assessment of reporting follows a pattern developed by Claire [1945] in his analysis of U.S. Steel and utilized by other researchers. This study demonstrates the use of archival information to improve understanding about the origins and contents of early annual reports and, therein, related disclosure forms.

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