Bar Harbor, Maine, from the Surf Beauties series (N232), issued by Kinney Bros.
Medium
Commercial color lithograph
Dimensions
Sheet: 2 3/4 × 1 1/2 in. (7 × 3.8 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, N232.19
Tags
Art Historical Context
Step into the vibrant world of late 19th-century American ephemera with *Bar Harbor, Maine*, a charming commercial color lithograph from the Surf Beaut series (N232), issued by the Kinney Tobacco Company in 188. This petite print, measuring just 2 3/4 × 1 1/2 inches, captures profiles of girls in a beachside setting, evoking the leisurely allure of Bar Harbor, a fashionable Maine resort destination popular among Gilded Age elites. These cards were clever marketing inserts tucked into cigarette packs, sparking a collecting craze that turned everyday tobacco products into coveted treasures. Kin...
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...