Prairie Chicken, from the Game Birds series (N40) for Allen & Ginter Cigarettes
1888–90
Medium
Commercial color lithograph
Dimensions
Sheet: 2 7/8 x 3 1/4 in. (7.3 x 8.3 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
63.350.202.40.35
Tags
Art Historical Context
Step into the vibrant world of 19th-century American ephemera with *Prairie Chicken* from Allen & Ginter's Game series (N40), a delightful commercial color lithograph produced between 1888 and 1890. Created by the pioneering tobacco firm Allen & Ginter, this tiny card (just 2 7/8 x 3 1/4 inches) was one of many inserted into cigarette packs to entice collectors and boost sales. Part of a popular set celebrating North American game birds, it captures the prairie chicken—a plump, feathered icon of the Great Plains—in exquisite detail, highlighting its role as a prized game species in an era of e...
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...