Private, Ancient and Honorable Artillery, Boston, Massachusetts, V.M., 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, N224.142
Tags
Art Historical Context
Step into the vibrant world of 19th-century American ephemera with this petite commercial color lithograph from1888, produced by the Kinney Brothers Company. Titled *Private, Ancient and Honorable Artillery, Boston, Massachusetts V.M.*, it hails from the Military Series (N224), set of collectible trading cards inserted into Sweet Caporal cigarette packs. These cards, measuring just 2¾ × 1½ inches, were clever marketing tools that turned smoking into a gateway for hobby collecting, featuring profiles of soldiers to evoke patriotism and camaraderie. The artwork spotlights a private from Boston'...
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...