Kildeer Plover, from the Game Birds series (N13) for Allen & Ginter Cigarettes Brands
Medium
Commercial color lithograph
Dimensions
Sheet: 1 1/2 x 2 3/4 in. (3.8 x 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
63.350.201.13.26
Tags
Art Historical Context
Step into the vibrant world of 19th advertising with *Kildeer Plover* from the *Game Birds* series (N13), a tiny chromolithograph produced in 1889 by Allen & Ginter in collaboration with George S. & Sons. This delicate 1 1/2 x 2 3/4-inch card captures the elegant form and distinctive markings of the killdeer plover—a shorebird known for its "kill-deer" call and broken-wing distraction display to protect its nest. Inserted into cigarette packs, these cards were part of an innovative marketing strategy that turned smokers into collectors, sparking a craze for ephemera that endures today. Chromo...
About the Artist
Allen & Ginter|George S. Harris & Sons
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...