Washington Bridge, 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
63.350.207.137.16
Tags
Art Historical Context
Step into the vibrant world of late 19th-century American advertising with *Washington Bridge, from the Transparencies seriesN137)*, a petite commercial color lithograph produced W. Duke, Sons & Co. in the late1880s. This tiny gem, measuring just 2½ × 4⅜ inches, captures the majestic span of New York City's Washington Bridge over the Harlem River—a symbol of the city's explosive industrial growth during the Gilded. Issued as a promotional insert for the company's "Honest Long Tobacco," it was part of a collectible series designed to entice smokers and spark a trading card craze among enthusias...
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...