Amy Wells, from the Actresses series (N245) issued by Kinney Brothers to promote Sweet Caporal Cigarettes
Medium
Albumen photograph
Dimensions
Sheet: 2 1/2 × 1 7/16 in. (6.4 × 3.7 cm)
Classification
Photographs|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
63.350.220.245.1937
Tags
Art Historical Context
Step into the vibrant world of 1890s advertising with *Amy Wells, from theresses series (N245, a petite albumen photograph issued by Kinney Brothers Tobacco Company promote their Sweet Caporal Cigarettes. This tiny card—measuring just 2 1/2 × 1 7/16 inches— a portrait of the actress Amy Wells, capturing poised elegance amid the era's theater craze. Part of a popular series, these cards were tucked into cigarette packs as collectibles, enticing smokers with glamorous images of stage stars. Cigarette cards like this one marked a clever marketing innovation during America's Gilded Age, when toba...
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...