Eva Selbie, from the Actresses series (N245) issued by Kinney Brothers to promote Sweet Caporal Cigarettes
Medium
Albumen photograph
Dimensions
Sheet: 2 1/2 × 1 7/16 in. (6.4 × 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
63.350.220.245.1661
Tags
About this artwork
This small albumen photograph of actress Eva Selbie was issued in 1890 by Kinney Brothers Tobacco Company as part of their 'Actresses' series, one of many cigarette card sets that popularized collecting among late nineteenth-century consumers. The N245 series featured photographs of theatrical performers, capitalizing on Americans' fascination with the stage and the emerging celebrity culture that made actresses into public figures. Measuring just 2 1/2 by 1 7/16 inches, these cards were inserte...
About the Artist
Kinney Brothers Tobacco Company · 1869–2011
**Kinney Brothers Tobacco Company (1869–2011)** Founded around 1869 by Francis Sherwood Kinney in New York City, the Kinney Brothers Tobacco Company quickly rose to prominence in the burgeoning American cigarette industry. Francis, a pioneering tobacco manufacturer, experimented with hand-rolled cigarettes using blends of Turkish and Virginia tobacco, scaling to mass production by employing Europ...