Marie Shaw, from the Actresses series (N246), Type 2, issued by Kinney Brothers to promote Sporting Extra Cigarettes
ca. 1890
Medium
Albumen photograph
Dimensions
Sheet: 3 1/16 × 2 7/8 in. (7.7 × 7.3 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
63.350.220.246.89
Tags
Art Historical Context
Step into the vibrant world of late 19th-century American advertising with *Marie Shaw, from the Actresses series (N246), Type 2*, a charming albumen photograph issued around 1890 by the Kinney Brothers Tobacco Company. This petite card (just 3 1/16 × 2 7/8 inches) promoted Sporting Extra Cigarettes, featuring the portrait of actress Marie Shaw amid a popular series that celebrated female stars of the stage. These collectible inserts, tucked into cigarette packs, tapped into the era's booming celebrity culture, where theater luminaries like Shaw captivated audiences and became marketing icons....
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...