Cartoonists Take Up Smoking November 18, 2006

'Cartoonists Take Up Smoking,' an exhibition of original newspaper editorial cartoons, retraces the 40-year battle over the use and promotion of cigarettes since the publication of the landmark Surgeon General's report on smoking and health in 1964. The exhibit features 55 original cartoons by more than 50 nationally known American editorial cartoonists and is supplemented by smoking-related items, from the original newspaper headlines that inspired the cartoons to advertisements promoting the health benefits of lighting up. Also displayed are several artifacts, as well as two preserved lungs -- one showing the ill effects of smoking and the other a healthy lung -- from the museum's anatomical collection.