Prairie Dog, from Quadrupeds series (N41) for Allen & Ginter Cigarettes
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
63.350.202.41.40
Tags
Art Historical Context
Step into the whimsical world of 19th advertising with *Prairie Dog* from Allen & Ginter's Quadrupeds series (N41 a delightful 1890 commercial color lithograph. Produced by the pioneering tobacco company Allen & Ginter in collaboration with lithographers Lindner, Eddy Claus, this tiny card (just 2 7/8 x 3 1/4 inches) was tucked into cigarette packs as a collectible insert, sparking a craze for trading cards among Americans. Chromolithography, the medium here, revolutionized mass printing with its vibrant, multi-layered colors applied from stone plates—perfect for capturing the prairie dog's a...
About the Artist
Allen & Ginter|Lindner, Eddy & Claus
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...