“Instructions for Using John W. Barnett’s Patent Process for Curing Leaf Tobacco.”

Big Spring, Virginia, 1879. Handbill measuring 8 ¾ x 11 ¾ inches. Marginal damage, especially to top; marked in pencil at top left; very good.. A handbill describing a process for curing tobacco, patented in 1879 by John W. Barnett of Big Spring, a town in northern Virginia. Tobacco has long been a hugely important cash crop in the region; in 1860, Virginia was the top tobacco producer in the United States by a large margin. During the Civil War, production in Virginia dropped precipitously, and bounced back slowly but surely over the next decades.[1] Barnett goes into great detail, specifying exact times and temperatures for the process; for instance, for the first twelve hours, the fires should be renewed every two hours and twenty-four minutes. The process involves using water around the fires, which slows the curing process. We find six copies of this handbill on OCLC.

[1] Benjamin William Arnold, “History of the Tobacco Industry in Virginia from 1860 to 1894,” in Johns Hopkins University Studies in History and Political Science, Fifteenth Series, ed. Herbert B. Adams (The Johns Hopkins Press, 1897), 9–85. (Inventory #: List2997)