American Indian, Arapahoe Squaw, from Types of Nationalities (N240) issued by Kinney Bros.
Medium
Commercial color lithograph
Dimensions
Sheet (Folded): 2 11/16 × 1 7/16 in. (6.8 × 3.7 cm) Sheet (Unfolded): 6 7/8 × 1 7/16 in. (17.4 × 3.7 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
Burdick 218, N240.4
Tags
Art Historical Context
This small color lithograph from 1890 belongs to the “Types of Nationalities” series (N240) issued by Kinney Brothers Tobacco Company as a cigarette premium. Printed on a single sheet that folds into a compact card measuring roughly 2 11/16 by 1 7/16 inches, the image depicts an Arapaho woman identified by the title “American Indian, Arapahoe Squaw.” Commercial color lithography allowed tobacco firms to produce thousands of brightly colored cards at low cost, turning everyday purchases into miniature collecting experiences. Such ephemera captured late-nineteenth-century public interest in eth...
About the Artist
Kinney Brothers Tobacco Company · 1869–2011
**Kinney Brothers Tobacco Company (1869–2011)** Founded around 1869 by Francis Sherwood Kinney in New York City, the Kinney Brothers Tobacco Company quickly rose to prominence in the burgeoning American cigarette industry. Francis, a pioneering tobacco manufacturer, experimented with hand-rolled cigarettes using blends of Turkish and Virginia tobacco, scaling to mass production by employing Europ...