J. A. Dahlgren, 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
63.350.202.25.9
Tags
Art Historical Context
This petite commercial color lithograph, titledJ. A. Dahlgren, printer's sample for World's Inventors souvenir albumA25)*, captures stern portrait of John Adolphusgren, a pioneering 19th-century American naval officer and inventor best known for designing the smoothbore Dahlgren gun—a revolutionary cannon that transformed naval artillery. Produced by the tobacco company Allen & Ginter in1888, this 2¾ × 1½-inch sample served as a proof for their popular series of collectible cards inserted into cigarette packs, celebrating innovators to captivate smokers and boost brand loyalty. Allen & Ginter...
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...