H.M. Schloss, Champion Sprinter, from the Champions of Games and Sports series (N184, Type 2) issued by W.S. Kimball & Co.
Medium
Commercial color lithograph
Dimensions
Sheet: 2 11/16 × 1 1/2 in. (6.8 × 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
63.350.216.184.47
Tags
Art Historical Context
Step into the vibrant world of 19th-century American ephemera with *H.M. Schloss, Sprinter*, a tiny yet dynamic commercial color lithograph from1887. Produced by W.S. Kimball & Co., a tobacco manufacturer, this 2 11/16 × 1 1/2-inch card is part of the *Champions of Games and* series (N184, Type 2). It the poised intensity of H.M. Schloss-stride, celebrating his status as a sprinting champion amid the era's rising obsession with athletic prowess. Chromolithography, the medium here, was a breakthrough technique allowing mass production of vivid, multi-colored prints from stone plates—a perfect ...
About the Artist
W.S. Kimball & Co.
William S. Kimball & Co. was a tobacco manufacturer based in Rochester, New York, whose influence extended well beyond the cigarette trade into the realm of popular visual culture. Founded in 1846 by William S. Kimball and James C. Hart, the company grew into one of the largest tobacco concerns in the United States, erecting a landmark factory along the Erie Canal on Court Street in 1880. The buil...