Julius Barre, from the Sea Captains series (N127) issued by Duke Sons & Co. to promote Honest Long Cut Tobacco
Medium
Commercial color lithograph
Dimensions
Sheet: 4 3/16 × 2 7/16 in. (10.7 × 6.2 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
63.350.206.127.19
Tags
Art Historical Context
Step into the vibrant world of 19th-century American advertising with *Julius Barre* from the Sea Captains series (N), a petite commercial color lithograph produced in 1887 by W. Duke, Sons & Co in collaboration with George S Harris & Sons. Issued to promote Long Cut Tobacco, this card—measuring just 4 3/16 × 2 7/16 inches—was part of a popular collectible series featuring portraits of notable sea captains. Likely distributed inside tobacco packages, these ephemera items captivated collectors with their bold imagery of men and flags, evoking the era's fascination with maritime heroism. Chromo...
About the Artist
W. Duke, Sons & Co.|George S. Harris & Sons · 1870–1920
**W. Duke, Sons & Co.: Pioneers of Chromolithographic Trade Card Art** W. Duke, Sons & Co., an American tobacco manufacturer, emerged from the entrepreneurial vision of Washington Duke (1820–1905) and his sons in Durham, North Carolina. After the Civil War, Washington abandoned farming in 1874 to join his eldest son, Brodie L. Duke, in the burgeoning tobacco trade, establishing a factory that for...