Cuckoo, from the Birds of America series (N4) for Allen & Ginter Cigarettes Brands
1888
Medium
Commercial color lithograph
Dimensions
Sheet: 2 3/4 x 1 1/2 in. (7 x 3.8 cm)
Classification
Prints|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
63.350.201.4.1
Tags
Art Historical Context
This charming 1888 commercial color lithograph, titled *Cuckoo*, belongs to Allen & Ginter’s “Birds of America” series (N4), a set of collectible cards issued with the company’s cigarette brands. Measuring just 2 ¾ by 1 ½ inches, the card exemplifies the era’s innovative use of color lithography to produce affordable, vividly printed ephemera. Such cards transformed everyday tobacco packaging into miniature galleries, bringing images of American wildlife to a broad public. In the late nineteenth century, cigarette manufacturers like Allen & Ginter pioneered trading-card series to build brand ...
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...