A cardboard box containing about 50 pipes for smoking, wrapped in newspapers dating to the late 1930s and early '40s, likely passed through several generations before ending up in the hands of Sandy Cranston.

"I really didn't know they existed," she said.

The collection, which a relative handed down to Cranston, remained tucked away in storage for several years until she noticed the words "pipe collection" written on the box.

That was when she began to explore the contents and became enthralled with the pipes of various sizes, shapes, colors and origins.

Cranston started to research the pipes, and with the help of friends, family and eBay, her collection of pipes has grown to nearly 200.

Many of the pipes are on display through the end of the month at the Moneta-Smith Mountain Lake Library.

"People seem interested," library manager Teresa Cook said. "They all stop to look. One patron did tell me her uncle made pipes."

Although the number of pipe smokers and pipe makers have declined over the years, the pipe is an important part of the history of America's settlement.

"People came from England and noticed Indians smoking tobacco and returned it to England," said Cranston, who lives in Huddleston with her husband, Robert Cranston.

Sandy Cranston's collection includes pipes made in Germany, Italy, Turkey and the Netherlands. There are ones you can smoke and novelty ones not made for smoking, such as the toilet-shaped pipe.

Most of those for smoking are made of briar wood.

"Briar is excellent to make pipes from because it doesn't burn," Cranston said.

She also has pipes shaped like a monkey, a Scottish terrier and a bull. She has wooden pipes, porcelain pipes, corncob pipes, leather-covered pipes and pipes with lids.

"There is one in here I wish could talk," Cranston said. "It has a prisoner number or something similar inscribed on it."

The inscription is a combination of six numbers and letters carved into the bowl of the pipe.

Another of the pipes has a date carved in it, though Cranston can't make out if it is 1830 or 1850.

She does not know how old some of the pipes are or what they are worth. She has taught herself most of what she knows about them by reading books and learning to classify the characteristics of each pipe to determine its origin.

Cranston said she tries to keep her buying urges under control. The most she ever spent on eBay for a pipe was $15.

"It was a church warden's pipe that had never been smoked," she said.

Cranston has two daughters who live in Lynchburg, neither of whom seems interested in mother's pipe collection.

"They think I'm crazy," she said. "My oldest daughter thinks smoking is just despicable."

Not that Cranston smokes. She said she never has.

But growing up in Appomattox County, Cranston remembers a relative's taste for the pipe.

"One of my favorite uncles was a pipe smoker," Cranston said. "I loved the smell of pipe smoke."

For Cranston, pipe smoking is much like learning to play a musical instrument.

"It's an art," she said. "A learned skill."