Archaic Bee-Hive Huts, from the Habitations of Man series (N113) issued by W. Duke, Sons & Co. to promote Honest Long Cut Smoking and Chewing Tobacco
Medium
Commercial color lithograph
Dimensions
Sheet: 2 1/2 × 4 1/8 in. (6.4 × 10.5 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
63.350.206.113.12
Art Historical Context
This 1890 commercial color lithograph belongs to the “Habitations of Man” series, a set of small trade cards distributed by W. Duke, Sons & Co. inside packages of Honest Long Cut tobacco. The card’s title, “Archaic Bee-Hive Huts,” points to an interest in early or vernacular architecture, likely depicting rounded, thatched dwellings that evoke ancient or indigenous building traditions. Such imagery allowed the company to blend education with advertising, encouraging customers to collect the entire series while they enjoyed their tobacco. Color lithography made these cards affordable to produc...
About the Artist
W. Duke, Sons & Co.|American Tobacco Company|The Giles 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...