Happy New Year, from the New Years 1890 series (N227) issued by Kinney Bros.
Medium
Commercial color lithograph
Dimensions
Sheet: 1 1/2 × 2 3/4 in. (3.8 × 7 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
Burdick 218, N227.15
Tags
Art Historical Context
Welcome to the Metropolitan Museum of Art's and Prints department, where we showcase fascinating ephemera likeHappy New Year* from the Years 1890 series (N227), issued by the Kinney Tobacco Company in 1889–90 This petite commercial color lithograph, just 1 1/2 × 2 3/4 inches, captures the festive spirit of the Gilded Age with a vibrant New Year's greeting, likely featuring dynamic railway or train imagery—a nod to America's booming rail expansion that connected communities and symbolized progress. Chromolithography, the medium here, was a revolutionary printing technique of the era, allowing ...
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...