Nantasket Beach, from the Fancy Bathers series (N187) issued by Wm. S. Kimball & Co.
Medium
Commercial color lithograph
Dimensions
Sheet: 2 11/16 × 1 1/2 in. (6.9 × 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
63.350.216.187.24
Tags
Art Historical Context
Step into the vibrant world of late 19th-century American ephemera with *Nantasket Beach* from the Fancy Bathers series (N187), a diminutive commercial color lithograph issued by Wm. S. Kimball & Co. in 1889. Measuring just 2 11/16 × 1 1/2 inches, this tiny print captures the leisurely allure of Nantasket Beach, a fashionable Massachusetts resort popular among Victorian-era vacationers. Produced as promotional trade cards for Kimball's tobacco products—likely cigars or cigarettes—the series idealized women in profile enjoying seaside escapades, evoking a sense of refined summer bliss. Chromol...
About the Artist
William S. Kimball & Company
**William S. Kimball & Company**, a pioneering American tobacco manufacturer, was established in 1846 in Rochester, New York, by William S. Kimball and James C. Hart. The firm quickly grew into one of the city's largest employers, particularly of women, producing popular brands like Peerless chewing tobacco, Rigatta and Fireside smoking tobacco, and Vanity Fair cigarettes. Under Kimball's leadersh...