Fantail Pigeon, from the Birds of America series (N37) for Allen & Ginter Cigarettes
1888
Medium
Commercial color lithograph
Dimensions
Sheet: 2 7/8 x 3 1/4 in. (7.3 x 8.3 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
63.350.202.37.18
Tags
Art Historical Context
This charming 1888 color lithograph depicts a Fantail pigeon, one of many bird illustrations issued by the Allen & Ginter tobacco company as part of its “Birds of America” series (N37). Produced as a small cigarette card—just under three by three-and-a-quarter inches—the print was designed to be slipped into packs of cigarettes, turning an everyday purchase into an opportunity for collecting and learning about natural history. In the late nineteenth century, such commercial ephemera played an important role in popular education and visual culture. Allen & Ginter employed skilled lithographers...
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...