Kentucky, from the Industries of States series (N117) issued by Duke Sons & Co. to promote Honest Long Cut Tobacco
Medium
Commercial color lithograph
Dimensions
Sheet: 4 3/16 × 2 1/2 in. (10.6 × 6.3 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
63.350.206.117.21
Tags
Art Historical Context
This vibrant chromolithograph, titled *Kentucky* from the *Industries States* series (N), was produced in 1889 by W. Duke, Sons & Co., a American tobacco firm, to promote their Honest Long Cut Tobacco. Measuring just 4 3/16 × 2 1/2 inches, it belongs to the era's popular trade cards—small, collectible inserts often tucked into cigarette packages. The imagery likely features allegorical women with shields, symbolizing Kentucky pride in industries like tobacco farming, horse breeding, and bourbon distillation, evoking state identity during the Gilded Age's industrial boom. Chromolithography, th...
About the Artist
W. Duke, Sons & Co. · 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...