The American Tobacco Company was a tobacco company founded in 1890 by J. B. Duke through a merger between a number of U.S. tobacco manufacturers including Allen and Ginter and Goodwin & Company. The company was one of the original 12 members of the Dow Jones Industrial Average in 1896. The American Tobacco Company dominated the industry by acquiring the Lucky Strike Company and over 200 other rival firms. Federal Antitrust action begun in 1907 broke the company into several major companies in 1911.
James Buchanan Duke, founder
Early Cross-Cut and Cameo cigarette packs by W. Duke & Sons Co
Child laborers at American Tobacco Company in Wilmington, Delaware, 1910, photo by Lewis Hine
1914 Bull Durham ad appealing to the experienced smoker who prefers to roll his own cigarettes—the "thirty-third degree smoke veteran"
James Buchanan Duke was an American tobacco and electric power industrialist best known for the introduction of modern cigarette manufacture and marketing, and his involvement with Duke University. He was the founder of the American Tobacco Company in 1890.
James Buchanan Duke
James B. Duke House on Fifth Avenue, New York, as seen in 2010
Statue of James B. Duke in front of the West Campus Quad, pictured in July 2008