Australia, from the Races of Mankind series (T181) issued by Abdul Cigarettes
1881
Medium
Commercial color lithograph
Dimensions
Sheet: 2 3/8 × 1 3/8 in. (6 × 3.5 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
63.350.246.181.4
Tags
Art Historical Context
Step into the world of 19th-century ephemera with *Australia, from the Races of Mankind series (T181)*, a tiny yet telling commercial color lithograph issued Abdul Cigarettes in 1. Measuring just 3/8 × 1 3/8 inches, this collectible card was designed for insertion into cigarette packs, sparking a craze for trading cards among smokers worldwide. Part of a broader series depicting human "races" in profile, it captures a stylized male figure representing Indigenous Australians, reflecting the era's fascination with ethnography amid colonial expansion. Produced via chromolithography—a vibrant pr...
About the Artist
Abdul Cigarettes · 1881–1881
Abdul Cigarettes, an enigmatic American entity active solely in 1881, stands as a fascinating footnote in the history of commercial art, best known for producing vibrant chromolithograph trade cards inserted into cigarette packages as promotional inserts. Little is documented about its origins or personnel, suggesting it operated as a short-lived publishing venture rather than the work of a singul...