Cyrus Hall McCormick, printer's sample for the World's Inventors souvenir album (A25) for Allen & Ginter Cigarettes
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
63.350.202.25.29
Tags
Art Historical Context
This petite chromolithograph, produced in 1888 by the Allen & Ginter cigarette company, captures inventor Cyrus Hall McCormick as part of their "World's Inventors" souvenir album series (A25). Measuring just 2¾ x 1½ inches, it's a printer's sample—a proof used to perfect the vibrant colors and fine details before mass production. Housed in The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Drawings and Prints department from the Jefferson R. Burdick Collection, it exemplifies ephemera: everyday printed items that offer a window into Victorian-era culture. Allen & Ginter pioneered trade cards, inserting these c...
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...