Card 427, Alice Lingard, from the Actors and Actresses series (N45, Type 1) for Virginia Brights Cigarettes
ca. 1888
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
63.350.203.45.330
Tags
Art Historical Context
Step into the vibrant world of 19th-century celebrity culture with *Card 427, Aliceard*, a gem from Allen & Ginter's Actors and Actresses series (45, Type 1), issued around 1888 to promote Virginia Brights Cig. This petite albumen photograph, measuring just 2 3/4 x 1 3/8 inches, captures the poised elegance of actress Alice Lingard, one many stage stars immortalized on these collectible trade cards. Tucked into cigarette packs, transformed smoking into a hobby for enthusiasts who traded and albumed them like modern trading cards. Produced during the Gilded Age, when tobacco companies pioneere...
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...