The collection was the lifelong passion of Bennett Watson Cowper Roberts, a Durham native and historian. He collected tobacciana for over 50 years and wrote Bull Durham Business Bonanza with his wife Snow Roberts. The collection includes thousands of items from Bull Durham tobacco sacks to a 12 piece billboard template advertising Bull Durham.
Also included in this collection is a rare painting on metal of the 1805 4 story brick factory with the names of the 3 owners on a sign on top of the building; several checkerboards used in General Stores; store bins, a poster of 33 postcards depicting Bull Durham around the world and the 33 postcards used in the poster (postmarked in 1913, 1914 and 1915), and a plethora of ephemera such as painting, broadsides, postcards, magazine and newspaper ads, pamplets, coupons, banners, tobacco tins, cigarette packs and cartons, labels, insert cards and paper circus animals for children.
