Uploaded June 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
This event occurred on June 5, 2026.
This special lecture by award-winning author Keith Wailoo centers on his book "Pushing Cool: Big Tobacco, Racial Marketing, and the Untold Story of the Menthol Cigarette." Wailoo traces the story of how cigarette companies crafted the appeal of menthol cigarettes—first by tapping into Americans’ rising health and cancer anxieties from the 1920s through the 1950s, and later by deliberately cultivating Black consumers in urban markets in the 1960s. He reveals how the industry built, protected, and fiercely defended these markets for decades, even as public health concerns mounted and regulatory pressures grew. The talk explores the unexpected alliances, critics, and political battles that shaped this contentious history of tobacco, race, health, and American business.
Jointly sponsored by the Southern California Society for the History of Medicine, this program takes inspiration from the Johnson Publishing Company Archives and photographs in the Getty Research Institute’s special collections:
https://www.getty.edu/projects/johnson-publishing-company-archive/
Keith Wailoo is Henry Putnam University Professor of History and Public Affairs at Princeton University where he teaches in the Department of History and the School of Public and International Affairs. He is an award-winning author on drugs and drug policy; race, science, and health; and genetics and society; and he is known also for insightful public writing and media commentaries on history of medicine, pandemics and society, and medical affairs in the US.
The Southern California Society for the History of Medicine is committed to sustaining the history of medicine in Southern California and supporting the Los Angeles County Medical Association Collections at The Henry E. Huntington Library, San Marino, California.
Learn more about this event: https://www.getty.edu/calendar/pushing-cool/
______________________________________________________________________
The Getty Research Institute is dedicated to furthering knowledge and advancing understanding of the visual arts and their various histories through its expertise, active collecting program, public programs, institutional collaborations, exhibitions, publications, digital services, and residential scholars programs. Its library and special collections of rare materials and digital resources serve an international community of scholars and the interested public. The Research Institute's activities and scholarly resources guide and sustain each other and together provide a unique environment for research, critical inquiry, and scholarly exchange.
Getty Research Institute: https://www.getty.edu/research/
This event occurred on June 5, 2026.
This special lecture by award-winning author Keith Wailoo centers on his book "Pushing Cool: Big Tobacco, Racial Marketing, and the Untold Story of the Menthol Cigarette." Wailoo traces the story of how cigarette companies crafted the appeal of menthol cigarettes—first by tapping into Americans’ rising health and cancer anxieties from the 1920s through the 1950s, and later by deliberately cultivating Black consumers in urban markets in the 1960s. He reveals how the industry built, protected, and fiercely defended these markets for decades, even as public health concerns mounted and regulatory pressures grew. The talk explores the unexpected alliances, critics, and political battles that shaped this contentious history of tobacco, race, health, and American business.
Jointly sponsored by the Southern California Society for the History of Medicine, this program takes inspiration from the Johnson Publishing Company Archives and photographs in the Getty Research Institute’s special collections:
https://www.getty.edu/projects/johnson-publishing-company-archive/
Keith Wailoo is Henry Putnam University Professor of History and Public Affairs at Princeton University where he teaches in the Department of History and the School of Public and International Affairs. He is an award-winning author on drugs and drug policy; race, science, and health; and genetics and society; and he is known also for insightful public writing and media commentaries on history of medicine, pandemics and society, and medical affairs in the US.
The Southern California Society for the History of Medicine is committed to sustaining the history of medicine in Southern California and supporting the Los Angeles County Medical Association Collections at The Henry E. Huntington Library, San Marino, California.
Learn more about this event: https://www.getty.edu/calendar/pushing-cool/
______________________________________________________________________
The Getty Research Institute is dedicated to furthering knowledge and advancing understanding of the visual arts and their various histories through its expertise, active collecting program, public programs, institutional collaborations, exhibitions, publications, digital services, and residential scholars programs. Its library and special collections of rare materials and digital resources serve an international community of scholars and the interested public. The Research Institute's activities and scholarly resources guide and sustain each other and together provide a unique environment for research, critical inquiry, and scholarly exchange.
Getty Research Institute: https://www.getty.edu/research/
