Card Number 181, Dollie Joyce, 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
63.350.208.145.5.70
Tags
Art Historical Context
Step into the vibrant world of 19th-century advertising with *Card Number 181,ie Joyce*, a petite albumen photograph from the Actors and Actresses series (145-5). Issued W. Duke, Sons & Co. in the 1880s to promote theiro Cigarettes, this card—measuring just 2 11/16 × 1 3/8 inches—captures the allure of stage star Dollie Joyce. Tobacco companies like Duke pioneered collectible trading cards,ucking them into cigarette packs to entice buyers and build brand loyalty during America's Gilded Age. The albumen print medium, a hallmark of early photography, used egg white-coated paper sensitized with ...
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...