by Tony Hyman, Ed.D.

Cigars and cigar boxes have been part of elections for a century and a half. For fully one-third of that time, Tony Hyman has been collecting and researching the various ways the political scene and the cigar industry have crossed paths. Today, Dr. Hyman (Ed.D., in information management from Columbia) operates the National Cigar Museum on the web. The physical Museum crams more than 30,000 items into three rooms so is open to the public on a need-to-be-there basis. I’ve had the opportunity to visit Tony and the Museum on many occasions to help with his web postings. During my last visit, Tony and I discussed the upcoming election, and the elections of the past as they related to cigars. I asked him to give Stogie Fresh readers an overview of how cigars were used during the elections of the past, and to show some of his favorite museum pieces. Take it away, Tony.

Cigar Boxes and Politics

Political boxes have long been favorites of mine. One of my collecting goals has been to find a box from every election 1860 to 1960. I’m close, but still have a few gaps, the worst being the election of 1916.

I’ve learned there have been three basic ways that cigars and politics intertwine. First, cigar box labels have been used to tout the candidates and their causes. Second, glad-handing politicians have given the cigars as bribes. And last, what I think is the most innovative connection, the cigars and boxes have combined to serve as a straw poll, allegedly predicting the results, but mostly putting money in the pockets of retailers.

Early Examples of Politics and Cigars

Though technically not an “election” box, it is the earliest yet discovered attempt to use the popularity of important contemporary political figures to sell cigars. Quality by association.

Heavy smoking, wildly popular Grant helped bring cigars into the mainstream. Grant is the only presidential candidate whose campaign song touted his love of cigars. The song, “A-Smoking His Cigar” included the line: “The people know just what they want. Less talk and no more war. For President, Ulysses Grant a-smoking his cigar.”

1872: US Grant (Dem), Horace Greeley (Rep) and the Equal Rights Party

Some of the earliest political boxes are “issues boxes” seeking to attract a smoker’s eye by depicting one of the day’s more newsworthy controversies. Any issues box is a thrill to find. My personal favorite is from the 1872 election that pitted Republican Ulysses Grant against Democratic newspaperman Horace Greeley.

They were the established party candidates, but the real attention-getters were the nominees of the newly formed Equal Rights Party: feminist female Victoria Woodhull and Black abolitionist Frederick Douglass. Hmmm? A woman and a black as running mates? Sound familiar? Interestingly, Woodhull couldn’t have served had she been elected not because she was a woman, but because she didn’t meet the minimum age requirement of 35.

“Women’s Rights” included the right to smoke in public, a hotly debated issue since Puritan days. On this label the fashionable pretty cigar-smoking woman is rejecting “her” party and accepting gift cigars from the Democrats, while the hang-dog women’s party is attracting a different clientele. Ultimately, her choice didn’t matter, as both parties lost to the popular Grant. This is the earliest depiction I’ve found of cigars being given away by a political campaign in exchange for attention and presumably votes. It is also a very early use of the women’s rights movement to sell a product.

The Election of 1888

There are some very nice election boxes from 1880 including the first to use full color lithographic labels to tout a candidate. I’m glad to have them, but you asked for my “favorites” so I have to move forward to the election of 1888. This is the most famous year in cigar circles as no other election in history generated more cigar brands and a greater variety of box styles. Particularly noteworthy are the large numbers of “Your Choice” style boxes. Those are single boxes or pairs of boxes that depict the candidates and were displayed atop the counter as stimulus to “vote” for their favorite candidate by selecting a cigar from his box or side of the box.

This terrific pair from the election of 1888 was used by Oneida, NY, cigar makers Powell & Goldstein whose 120 rollers produced 100 custom brands for markets from Chicago to Boston, but mostly along the Erie Canal. Pairs are almost never found today. I was fortunate to have found these covered with dust in the 4th floor attic of P&G’s original cigar factory back in the 1970’s, nearly 50 years after production of their brands was moved to Pennsylvania.

Theodore Roosevelt and the Election of 1904

The election of 1904 which starred Republican President Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt is second only to that of 1888 in the number of cigar boxes it generated. Previous Democratic candidates had no desire to run against the popular T.R. Only megalomaniac William Randolph Hearst wanted the nomination, but the Party didn’t want him, selecting an unknown 81 year old multi-millionaire judge, Alton Parker, in hopes he’d pick up the tab for a sure-bet losing effort. He didn’t. The man his own party called “that damned cowboy” won easily, while supporting conservation, national parks, the Panama Canal and the elimination of the trusts.

This small box of 12 cigars (shown below) was a Republican Party give-away that is one of my personal favorite boxes because of the misspelled top. A deliberate error by a disgruntled Democratic printer?

The Election of 1922 and the Scandal of the Decade

Teapot Dome was the nickname of Federally owned oil reserves in Wyoming, set aside for use by the Navy in time of war. The Republican Senator from New Mexico most opposed to the arrangement, Albert Fall, was appointed Secretary of the Interior under Harding. Fall took over the Teapot Dome and Elk Hill (California) reserves from the Navy and promptly leased them to private oil companies for exploitation. That was legal; it was the subsequent $404,000 in gifts and loans from oil companies that wasn’t. The investigation was headed by Republican Senator Bob LaFollette and doggedly pursued by Democratic Senator Tom Walsh of Montana. It took 5 years, but ultimately Fall became the first cabinet member in history to go to jail for actions in office. The most important outcome was a Supreme Court case establishing Congress’s right to compel testimony.

I really like this simple box (above) because of it’s wonderful play on words. Crooks are a type of cigar with a rectangular cross-section that are moulded in such a way as to put s-bend in the middle. The Capitol dome and oil derricks complete the pun.

As a popular song once said, “These are a few of my favorite things.” This is just a hint at the variety of election-related cigar brands. Thanks to my friend Doc Stogie for the opportunity to share them. People who’d like to see more are encouraged to visit <www.CigarHistory.org>

For 55 years, Tony Hyman has purchased, sold, traded, photographed and catalogued around 100,000 cigars boxes from every period in cigar history and from many different countries. He has collected cigar accoutrements, memorabilia and historical documents and is one of America’s foremost authorities on cigar history pre-1960.