Miss Annie Summerville, from the Actresses series (N245) issued by Kinney Brothers to promote Sweet Caporal Cigarettes
Medium
Albumen photograph
Dimensions
Sheet: 2 1/2 × 1 7/16 in. (6.4 × 3.7 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
63.350.220.245.1749
Tags
Art Historical Context
Step into the glittering world of 1890s theater with *Miss Annie Summerville*, charming albumen photograph from Kinney Brothers Tobacco Company's Actresses series (N245 Issued to promote their popular Sweet Caporal Cigarettes, this tiny portraitmeasuring just 2½ × 1⅞ inches—captures the poised elegance of Summerville, a celebrated stage actress. Part of a collectible set traded by enthusiasts, it exemplifies the era's fusion of celebrity culture and clever marketing. These cigarette cards were cultural phenomena during America's Gilded Age, when tobacco companies like Kinney Brothers leverage...
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...