Second Lieutenant Infantry, United States Army, 1886, 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, N224.31
Tags
Art Historical Context
Step into the vibrant world of 19th-century American advertising with *Second Lieutenant Infantry, United States Army, 1886*, a gem from the Kinney Brothers Tobacco Company's Military Series (N224). Issued in 1888 to promote their popular Sweet Caporal Cigarettes, this tiny commercial color lithograph—measuring just 2 3/4 × 1 1/2 inches—was likely tucked into cigarette packs as a collectible incentive. Capturing a uniformed officer from the U.S. Army Infantry, it reflects the era's fascination with military valor during the post-Civil War Gilded Age, when patriotism and martial pride fueled co...
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...