Mlle. Menilli, 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
63.350.220.245.1297
Tags
Art Historical Context
Step into the glamorous world of 1890s celebrity culture with *Mlle. Menilli, from the Act series (N245)*, a petite albumen photograph issued by Kinney Brothers Tobacco Company promote their popular Sweet Caporal Cig. This tiny portrait (just 2½ × 1⅞ inches) captures the poised elegance of the French actress Mlle. Menilli, of many stage stars featured in this collectible series Produced as promotional ephemera, these cards tucked into cigarette packs, enticing smokers—mostly men—to collect and trade them like modern trading cards. Albumen prints, the dominant photographic medium of the era, l...
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...