Miss Robinson, 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
63.350.220.245.1548
Tags
Art Historical Context
Step into the vibrant world of 1890s advertising with *Miss Robinson, from theresses series (N245, a petite albumen photograph produced by the Kinney Brothers Company. Issued as collectible trading cards inside packs of Sweet Caporal Cig, this piece exemplifies the clever marketing tactics of the Gilded Age. Tobacco companies like Kinney Brothers capitalized on the era's obsession with theater and celebrity, enticing smokers—primarily men—with glamorous portraits of actresses to boost brand loyalty and spark collecting frenzies. Crafted in the albumen printing process, popular from the 1850s ...
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...