Private, 2nd Battalion, Maryland, National Guard, from the Military Series (N224) issued by Kinney Tobacco Company to promote Sweet Caporal Cigarettes
Medium
Commercial color lithograph
Dimensions
Sheet: 2 3/4 × 1 1/2 in. (7 × 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
Burdick 218, N224.104
Tags
Art Historical Context
In the late 19th century, American tobacco companies like the Kinney Brothers Tobacco Company revolutionized advertising by inserting collectible chromolithograph cards into cigarette. This vibrant card, titled *Private, 2nd, Maryland, National Guard is from their Military Series (N224), in 1888 to promote Sweet Cap Cigarettes. Measuring just 2¾ × 1½ inches, it depicts a uniformed soldier with rifle at the ready, embodying the era's fascination with military valor and patriotism amid growing national pride and militia enthusiasm. Chromolithography, the medium here, allowed for inexpensive, ey...
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...