Card 37, from the Girl Cyclists series (N49) for Virginia Brights Cigarettes
1887
Medium
Albumen photograph
Dimensions
Sheet: 2 3/4 x 1 3/8 in. (7 x 3.5 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
63.350.203.49.19
Tags
Art Historical Context
Step into the vibrant world of 19th-century advertising with *Card 37* from Allen & Ginter's * Cyclists* series (49), produced in 1887 to promote Virginia Brights Cigarettes This diminutive albumen photograph, measuring just2 3/4 x 1 3/8 inches, captures a woman cyclist in mid-pedal, her determined gaze and flowing attire embodying the thrill of the era's bicycle boom. Allen & Ginter, pioneering American tobacco manufacturers, popularized collectible trade cards inserted into cigarette packs, turning everyday smoking into a hunt for colorful series like this one featuring athletic women on whe...
About the Artist
Allen & Ginter
Allen & Ginter, the pioneering American tobacco firm based in Richmond, Virginia, emerged around 1880 from the partnership of John F. Allen and Lewis Ginter, evolving from Allen's earlier John F. Allen & Company. Allen retired in 1882, succeeded by John Pope, yet the brand endured under Ginter's leadership, employing over 1,100 workers—mostly women—for hand-rolled cigarettes by 1886. Ginter, a Dut...