Yes, there are two: one on each side of the Presiding Officer’s rostrum, so both the majority and minority side of the aisle have easy access. The boxes are the originals dating from 1860, and are affixed on the marble ledges just inside the doors Senators use to enter the chamber.

The snuff boxes are small (3"), made of black lacquered leather, with a Japanese scene decorating the top. Senate pages are given the responsibility of keeping them filled, although they rarely do so anymore since no Senators today are known to use snuff. Snuff, a pulverized form of tobacco, is either chewed or inhaled. In the past, the Senate has stocked both the moist variety of snuff, known as “rappee,” and the dry variety, known as “sweet” or “Scotch.”

Senator Robert Byrd [D-WV] wrote about the tradition of the snuff boxes in his published history of the Senate [The Senate 1789-1989: Addresses on the History of the United States Senate. 4 Volumes. Government Printing Office. 1991. ]

At one time, in the early 1800's, there was only one snuffbox in the old Senate chamber. Former page Isaac Bassett, who, by the late 1800's, had risen to the post of assistant doorkeeper, recalled in his memoirs how the tradition of the two snuffboxes arose. It was always his custom, he said, to keep a snuffbox on the vice president’s desk. The senators used to step up to the desk to get a pinch of snuff, and they would stop to chat awhile with the vice president. Sometimes, two or three senators would be standing at the rostrum, each with a pinch of snuff in his fingers, deep in conversation.

One day in 1849, Vice President Millard Fillmore complained to Bassett in desperation: “I want you to take this snuff box away from here. I can’t understand what is going on in the Chamber because of the interruptions and the conversations of Senators who come here for snuff!” Fillmore suggested that boxes be placed on either side of the chamber, and Bassett complied with little boxes like the ones we see today. . . .

The habit of snuff-taking in the Senate chamber is as old as the Senate. For those today or in the future who would cast a jaundiced eye at the use of snuff, we might pause to be reminded that, during the first half of the nineteenth century, most members of this body carried their own boxes of finely ground tobacco, and some even kept two boxes on their persons, one containing a mixture for personal use and another, usually a milder type, which was offered to friends. Washington’s leading presidential hostess, Dolley Madison, is reported to have carried as many as three snuffboxes at White House receptions. [Volume two, pp. 426-427]

For more information, an illustrated 2-page pamphlet called “Apropros of Snuff . . . a Few Words about Snuff and the U.S. Senate,” is available from the Office of Curator, U.S. Senate, Washington, D.C. 20510.