Woman wearing pink hat, from the Novelties series (N228, Type 2) issued by Kinney Bros.
Medium
Commercial color lithograph
Dimensions
Sheet (Round): 1 9/16 × 1 9/16 in. (4 × 4 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, N228.61
Tags
Art Historical Context
In the late 19th century, American tobacco companies like Kinney Brothers vibrant trading cards as promotional inserts in cigarette packs, transforming everyday smoking into a collector's pastime. This petite, round *Woman wearing pink hat* (1889) from their Novelties series (N228, Type 2) exemplifies the trend. Measuring just 1 9/16 inches in diameter, the commercial color lithograph captures a stylish woman in a fetching pink hat, likely evoking the fashionable ideals of the Gilded Age and appealing to a broad audience, including children who traded these "cigarette cards" avidly. Chromolit...
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...