Lake, St. Louis, American League, from the White Border series (T206) for the American Tobacco Company
1909–11
Medium
Commercial lithograph
Dimensions
Sheet: 2 5/8 x 1 7/16 in. (6.7 x 3.7 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
63.350.246.206.162
Tags
Art Historical Context
Step into the early days of America's pastime with *Lake, St. Louis, American*, a gem from the legendary T206 White Border series produced by the American Tobacco Company 1909 and 1911. This petite commercial lithograph (just 2 5/8 x 1 7/16 inches) captures a portrait of the St. Louis Americans baseball player, rendered in vibrant color against a clean white border. Issued as inserts in cigarette packs, these fueled the growing obsession with baseball heroes, blending sports fandom with tobacco marketing during baseball's golden pre-World War I era. Lithography, a revolutionary printing techn...
About the Artist
American Tobacco Company
**American Tobacco Company (1890–1911)** Founded on January 31, 1890, in Durham, North Carolina, by James Buchanan Duke, the American Tobacco Company emerged from the consolidation of five major U.S. tobacco manufacturers: W. Duke & Sons, Allen & Ginter, Goodwin & Company, W.S. Kimball & Co., and Kinney Brothers. Under Duke's aggressive leadership, it rapidly achieved monopoly status, controlling...