Indian club, from the Novelties series (N228, Type 3) issued by Kinney Bros.
Medium
Commercial color lithograph
Dimensions
Sheet: 2 13/16 × 7/8 in. (7.2 × 2.3 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
Burdick 218, N228.152
Tags
Art Historical Context
Step into the vibrant world of 19th-century American advertising with this petite commercial color lith, *Indian club, from theelties series (N, Type 3)*, produced by the Kinney Brothers Company in 1889 Measuring just 2 13/16 × 7/8 inches, this ephemera captures a wooden Indian club—a popular exercise tool resembling a bowling pin, swung in pairs for strength training during the physical culture boom of the Gilded Age. Issued as part of a collectible tobacco card series, reflects how companies like Kinney Bros. enticed smokers with colorful inserts tucked into cigarette packs, sparking a colle...
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...