Tobacco exhibition opens

The exhibition traces the history of smoking in the UK

An exhibition has opened in Lancashire tracing the history of the "evil weed".

The show at the Maritime Museum on St George's Quay, Lancaster is however, not intended to lure non-smokers into the habit.

It has been organised by the council with help from the health promotion staff at Morecambe Bay NHS trust.

The exhibition will trace the history of tobacco in the UK, and how tobacco production thrived in factories in Lancashire.

Tobacco is a dirty weed: I like it.
It satisfies no normal need: I like it.
It makes you thin, it makes you lean,
It takes the hair right off your bean:
It's the worst darn stuff I've ever seen: I like it.

G Hemminger, 1915

Exhibition curator Sue Ashworth said: "It's been really interesting to work on, as a non-smoker with a chain-smoking mother and, therefore, a passive-smoking father it's a subject I've shied away from in the past.

"It was fascinating, not just to gain a real understanding of the history...and medical implication of the subject but also to get a grasp of the big business interests at play."

It also shows there has been a long tradition of opposition to smoking.

Four hundred years ago, King James I described smoking as: "A custom loathsome to the eye, hateful to the nose, harmful to the brain, dangerous to the lungs, and in the black, stinking fume thereof, nearest resembling the horrible Stygian smoke of the pit that is bottomless."

The 20th anniversary of national no smoking day takes place next month, and the exhibition has been timed to coincide with it as it remains open until 13 April.