Card Number 202, Leicester, from the Actors and Actresses series (N145-1) issued by Duke Sons & Co. to promote Cross Cut Cigarettes
1880s
Medium
Albumen photograph
Dimensions
Sheet: 2 1/2 × 1 3/8 in. (6.4 × 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
63.350.207.145.1.90
Tags
Art Historical Context
Step into the vibrant world 19th-century celebrity with *Card Number , Leicester, from the and Actresses series (145-1)*, tiny gem produced by W Duke, Sons & Co in the 1880s to promote their Cross Cut Cigarettes. This-sized albumen photograph captures portrait of the actress Leicester, one of many glamorous performers featured in the series. Measuring just 2½ × 1⅜ inches, it was designed to slip easily into cigarette packs, enticing smokers to collect and trade these colorful cards. Albumen prints, made by coating paper with egg whites sensitized with silver salts, were hallmark of the era's ...
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...