W.W. Clapp, Boston Morning Journal, Philadelphia Public Ledger, from the American Editors series (N35) for Allen & Ginter Cigarettes
1887
Medium
Commercial color lithograph
Dimensions
Sheet: 2 7/8 x 3 1/4 in. (7.3 x 8.3 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
63.350.202.35.13
Tags
Art Historical Context
Step into the vibrant world of 19th American ephemera with *W.W. Clapp, Boston Morning Journal, Philadelphia Public Ledger*, a charming chromolithograph from Allen & Ginter's *American Editors* series (N35), issued in 1887. This petite card (just 2 7/8 x 3 1/4 inches) features a portrait of newspaper editor W.W. Cl amid a lively scene with fountains, boys, men, and women, capturing the bustling energy of Gilded Age journalism. Allen & Ginter, pioneering tobacco magnates, produced these as collectible inserts in cigarette packs to enhance stiffness and spark a collecting craze. Chromolithograp...
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...