Kitty Cheatham, from the Actresses series (N246), Type 1, issued by Kinney Brothers to promote Sporting Extra Cigarettes
ca. 1890
Medium
Albumen photograph
Dimensions
Sheet: 2 3/4 × 1 5/8 in. (7 × 4.2 cm)
Classification
Photographs|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
63.350.220.246.48
Tags
Art Historical Context
Step into the vibrant world of late 19th-century celebrity culture with this petite albumen photograph of actress Kitty Cheatham, part of the Actresses series (N246), Type 1. Issued around 1890 by the Kinney Brothers Tobacco Company to promote their Sporting Extra Cigarettes, this tiny card—measuring just 2¾ × 1⅝ inches—captures Cheatham's poised elegance, embodying the era's fascination with theater stars as glamorous icons. These cigarette cards were ingenious marketing tools, distributed in packs to encourage collecting and brand loyalty among smokers. As ephemera, they offer a snapshot of...
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...