Thomas A. Edison, printer's sample for the World's Inventors souvenir album (A25) for Allen & Ginter Cigarettes
1888
Medium
Commercial color lithograph
Dimensions
Sheet: 2 3/4 x 1 1/2 in. (7 x 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
63.350.202.25.13
Tags
Art Historical Context
This petite chromolithograph, a printer's sample from 1888, captures Thomas A. Edison in a formal portrait as part of Allen & Ginter's "World's Inventors" souvenir album (series A25). Produced by the pioneering American tobacco company, it exemplifies the era's innovative marketing: colorful insert cards bundled with cigarette packs to entice collectors, especially young boys. These ephemera cards turned everyday purchases into treasures, fueling a craze for trading and albums that anticipated modern trading cards. Printed in vivid commercial color lithography—a technique perfected in the 19t...
About the Artist
Allen & Ginter
Allen & Ginter, the pioneering American tobacco firm based in Richmond, Virginia, emerged around 1880 from the partnership of John F. Allen and Lewis Ginter, evolving from Allen's earlier John F. Allen & Company. Allen retired in 1882, succeeded by John Pope, yet the brand endured under Ginter's leadership, employing over 1,100 workers—mostly women—for hand-rolled cigarettes by 1886. Ginter, a Dut...