Rhode Island, from the Industries of States series (N117) issued by Duke Sons & Co. to promote Honest Long Cut Tobacco
Medium
Commercial color lithograph
Dimensions
Sheet: 4 3/16 × 2 1/2 in. (10.6 × 6.3 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
63.350.206.117.5
Tags
Art Historical Context
This charming 1889 color lithograph, titled *Rhode Island*, belongs to the “Industries of States” series (N117) produced by W. Duke, Sons & Co. to advertise Honest Long Cut Tobacco. Measuring just over four by two-and-a-half inches, the card was designed as an inexpensive, eye-catching giveaway that encouraged customers to collect the full set while promoting the company’s products. Such trade cards were a hallmark of late-nineteenth-century American marketing, blending commerce with popular education by highlighting each state’s signature industries. Rendered in vibrant commercial lithograph...
About the Artist
W. Duke, Sons & Co. · 1870–1920
**W. Duke, Sons & Co.: Pioneers of Chromolithographic Trade Card Art** W. Duke, Sons & Co., an American tobacco manufacturer, emerged from the entrepreneurial vision of Washington Duke (1820–1905) and his sons in Durham, North Carolina. After the Civil War, Washington abandoned farming in 1874 to join his eldest son, Brodie L. Duke, in the burgeoning tobacco trade, establishing a factory that for...