INC NEWS - Library unveils new web exhibit

[RW Pickle]

>From the Durham County Library.
RWP
27 Beverly
______________________________________________________

Dear Friends,

I am pleased to announce the unveiling Monday, February 25, 2008, of a new
web exhibit entitled “The End of Tobacco Road:  Scenes from Liggett &
Myers Tobacco Company’s Final Days in Durham, North Carolina, 1999.”  In
1999, Durham photographer Laura Drey spent several weeks shooting pictures
inside L&M's Durham factory.  The new web exhibition features a selection
of these images, which were chosen to illustrate the cigarette
manufacturing processes used by one of the largest tobacco companies in
the United States at the end of the twentieth century.  To view the
exhibit and learn more about the industry that put Durham on the map, go
to

 http://www.durhamcountylibrary.org/L&M/index.html

Many people in addition to photographer Laura Drey made the web exhibit
possible.  Johanna Russ, graduate student at UNC-Chapel Hill’s School of
Information and Library Science, designed the exhibit.  Durham County
Library Web master Jill Wagy and librarian Patricia Dew provided technical
assistance.  And none of it could have happened without the Liggett Group
employees who welcomed Drey into the factory to document their work.

Cigarette manufacturing, which became the backbone of the U.S. tobacco
industry, came to Durham in 1880 and left 120 years later, in 2000. Laura
Drey's photographs have enabled the library to depict a historic
time--L&M's last year in Durham, and the complicated process of
manufacturing cigarettes--an industry vital to Durham's history.

Photographer Drey says about the exhibit:  “In these photographs I have
sought to chronicle every aspect of Liggett to provide people with an
inside look and a greater perspective of the company.  Durham once
manufactured more cigarettes than any other city in the world. Because of
Liggett & Myers Tobacco Company's enormous significance to Durham's
history, I felt it would have been a shame--a lost opportunity--if the
plant moved to Mebane without having a pictorial documentary. Liggett's
leaving marks the end of the era of cigarette manufacturing in Durham.”

The primary mission of Durham County Library’s North Carolina Collection
is to preserve the history of Durham County and make it available to the
people of Durham County.  Explore the history and culture of our
fascinating city and county through the North Carolina Collection!

Lynn

Lynn Richardson

North Carolina Collection

Durham County Library

(919) 560-0171