Card Number 68, Emma Abbott, from the Actors and Actresses series (N145-2) issued by Duke Sons & Co. to promote Cross Cut Cigarettes
1880s
Medium
Albumen photograph
Dimensions
Sheet: 2 5/8 × 1 7/16 in. (6.6 × 3.7 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
63.350.207.145.2.42
Tags
Art Historical Context
In the late 1880s, American tobacco companies like W. Duke, Sons & Co. revolutionized marketing with collectible trade cards tucked into cigarette packs, turning smokers into avid hobbyists. This diminutive albumen photograph, *Card Number 68, Abbott*, from the Actors and Actresses series (145-2) promoting Cross Cut Cigarettes, the trend. Featuring celebrated opera singer and actress Emma Abbott posed with a spinning wheel, it blends celebrity portraiture with a nod to domestic nostalgia, appealing to Victorian-era collectors who prized these pocket-sized gems measuring just 2⅝ × 1⅞ inches. A...
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...