A Short History: General William S. Rosecrans, from the Histories of Generals series (N114) issued by W. Duke, Sons & Co. to promote Honest Long Cut Smoking and Chewing Tobacco
Medium
Commercial color lithograph
Dimensions
Sheet: 4 3/16 × 2 1/2 in. (10.7 × 6.4 cm)
Classification
Prints|Ephemera
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
The Jefferson R. Burdick Collection, Gift of Jefferson R. Burdick
Accession Number
63.350.206.114.25
Tags
Art Historical Context
Step into the vibrant world of 19th-century American ephemera with *A Short History: General S. Rosecrans*, a petite commercial color lithograph from1888. Produced by W. Duke, Sons & Co. in collaboration with Knapp & Company, this card is part of the *Histories of Generals series (N114), to promote their "Honest Long Cut and Chewing Tobacco." just 4 3/16 × 2 1/2 inches, it likely features a profile portrait of Civil War Union general amid patriotic motifs like flags and firearms, evoking the era's reverence for military heroes. In the post-Civil War Gilded Age, tobacco companies like Duke's p...
About the Artist
W. Duke, Sons & Co.|Knapp & Company · 1870–1920
**W. Duke, Sons & Co.: Pioneers of Chromolithographic Trade Card Art** W. Duke, Sons & Co., an American tobacco manufacturer, emerged from the entrepreneurial vision of Washington Duke (1820–1905) and his sons in Durham, North Carolina. After the Civil War, Washington abandoned farming in 1874 to join his eldest son, Brodie L. Duke, in the burgeoning tobacco trade, establishing a factory that for...