Mexican, from World's Smokers series (N33) for Allen & Ginter Cigarettes
1888
Medium
Commercial color lithograph
Dimensions
Sheet: 2 3/4 x 1 1/2 in. (7 x 3.8 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
63.350.202.33.43
Tags
Art Historical Context
This charming 1888 commercial colorograph belongs to Allen & Ginter’s “World’s Smokers” series (N33), a set of trading cards distributed with packs of cigarettes. The tiny sheet, measuring just 2¾ by 1½ inches, depicts a Mexican man in profile enjoying a smoke, rendered in bright, flat colors typical of late-nineteenth-century lithography. Produced as promotional ephemera rather than fine art, the card was designed to be collected, traded, and pasted into albums by enthusiastic smokers. Allen & Ginter, a leading American tobacco firm, capitalized on the era’s fascination with global cultures ...
About the Artist
Allen & Ginter
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...