Geronimo, Apache, from the American Indian Chiefs series (N36) 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
63.350.202.36.5
Tags
Art Historical Context
This striking commercial color lithograph from 1888 features Geronimo, the Apache leader, as part of Allen & Ginter’sAmerican Indian Chiefs” seriesN36). Produced as a small trade card measuring just under three by three-a-quarter inches, the was originally inserted into cigarette to promote the company’s products. Its bold colors and crisp portrait format reflect the vibrant commercial printing techniques that made such ephemera widely accessible to the public during the late nineteenth century. The image belongs to a broader cultural moment when images of Native American leaders circulated w...
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...