Paper short abstract:

Bristol has historically been built by empire, and in particular, the tobacco industry. Yet memory of this prominent past is rather ambiguous, if not largely invisible. This paper describes a joint project with a citizens' group interested in heritage to understand the city's memory of tobacco.

Paper long abstract:

This paper describes an ongoing collaborative research project in Bristol, England between myself and the Bristol Civic Society, a non-profit citizens' group with a concern for among other topics, heritage.

Along with other imperial industries, tobacco has historically played a fundamental role in Bristol's growth. Indeed, one of the most prominent landmarks in the city is the Wills Memorial Building, the flagship building of the University of Bristol, named after Henry Overton Wills III, the chairman of Wills Tobacco (now Imperial Tobacco) and first chancellor of the University of Bristol. Today, Bristol-based Imperial is both Bristol's most valuable company and the world's fourth largest tobacco firm.

Tobacco, in concert with imperial industries in sugar, chocolate, and the slave trade, have played an immeasurable role in the building and development of Bristol.

Yet my informants have noted that in some regards, the tobacco industry feel that they have 'been airbrushed' out of the city's memory, as attitudes over the past few decades about the health concerns of tobacco have created ambiguity about this once prominent industry, and as tobacco production and manufacturing in the city has ceased twenty years ago.

This paper seeks to describe an ongoing inquiry about the processes by which memory of tobacco's role in Bristol has been negotiated and handled publicly, the role of organisations like the BCS in heritage and memory, and how the tobacco industry has paradoxically become rather invisible, despite its material and historical prominence in Bristol.

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