Farvel & Tobak—a Danish expression that translates into “Goodbye and Tobacco,” offers museum visitors a chance to study dioramas and models of what an old tobacco factory and the machines that made cigars, pipe tobacco and chewing tobacco bits looked like. It also features a plethora of the tools used by tobacco company workers, different smoking pipes and displays of brands that originated in Odense. Central to the exhibit, of course, is information about the Stokkebye family and their company, their place in tobacco lore and their contributions to the city. Indeed, the original Erik Peter Stokkebye tobacco shop is located just two doors away from the Montergarden Museum and is now a protected historic site in its own right. Curious visitors to the Montergarden Museum will surely enjoy learning about Odense’s historic connection to the golden age of tobacco but most likely not quite as much as Erik Stokkebye enjoyed revisiting his family’s past and getting those artifacts back on display again.
“The museum staff thought it would be fun too and they have put on display the items that they found most interesting,” Erik Stokkebye says. “It’s been quite fun to get those artifacts out of boxes and revive the exhibit after 60-something years.”
– Story by Stephen A. Ross, editor-in-chief of Tobacco Business Magazine.
