Card Number 172, Lizzie Hughs, from the Actors and Actresses series (N145-5) issued by Duke Sons & Co. to promote Cameo Cigarettes
1880s
Medium
Albumen photograph
Dimensions
Sheet: 2 11/16 × 1 3/8 in. (6.8 × 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
63.350.208.145.5.63
Tags
Art Historical Context
In the bustling world of 1880s America, tobacco companies like W. Duke, Sons &. cleverly harnessed the allure of celebrity to market their products. This tiny albumen photograph, *Card Number 172, Hughs*, from the Actors and Actresses series (N145-5), promoted Cameo Cigarettes. Featuring the portrait of actress Lizzie Hughs, it exemplifies the era's trade cards—collectible ephemera distributed in cigarette packs or stores to entice consumers, particularly men, with glamorous images of stage stars. Albumen prints, made by coating paper with egg whites and silver salts, were the gold standard f...
About the Artist
W. Duke, Sons & Co. · 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...