George M. Pullman, 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
63.350.202.25.35
Tags
Art Historical Context
This petite chromolithograph, measuring just 2¾ x 1½ inches, industrialist George M. Pullman a printer's sample (A25) for Allen & Ginter's *World's Inventors* souvenir album, issued in 1888. by the pioneering tobacco company Allen & Ginter, it served as a promotional insert for their cigarette packs, blending portraiture with advertising in the vibrant style of commercial color lithography—a technique that allowed mass production of eye-catching, multi-hued images from a single stone. Chromolithography's precision and affordability made it ideal for the era's ephemera boom, transforming every...
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...