The Hudson River, from the Transparencies series (N137) issued by W. Duke, Sons & Co. to promote Honest Long Cut Tobacco
late 1880s
Medium
Commercial color lithograph
Dimensions
Sheet: 2 1/2 × 4 3/16 in. (6.4 × 10.6 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
63.350.207.137.17
Tags
Art Historical Context
Step into the vibrant world of late 19th-century American advertising with *The Hudson River, from Transparencies series (137)*, a petite commercial color lithograph produced W. Duke, Sons & Co. in the late 1880s. Issued to promote their "Honest Long Cut Tobacco," this tiny print (just 2½ × 4⅛ inches) captures a sunlit view of the majestic Hudson River, evoking the natural beauty that symbolized American pride during the Gilded Age. As part of a collectible series tucked into tobacco packages, it transformed everyday promotion into desirable keepsakes for enthusiasts. Chromolithography, the m...
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...