Zulah Williams, from the Actresses series (N245) issued by Kinney Brothers to promote Sweet Caporal Cigarettes
Medium
Albumen photograph
Dimensions
Sheet: 2 1/2 × 1 7/16 in. (6.4 × 3.7 cm)
Classification
Photographs|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
63.350.220.245.1957
Tags
Art Historical Context
In the late 19th century, American tobacco companies like Kinney pioneered innovative marketing with collectible trading cards tucked into cigarette packs. This petite albumen photograph of actress Zulah Williams is from their celebrated Actresses series (N245), issued in 1890 to promote Caporal Cigarettes. just 2½ × 1⅞ inches, these cards transformed everyday smoking into a treasure hunt for fans, featuring glamorous portraits of stage stars who captivated Gilded Age audiences with their and allure. The albumen process, a hallmark of 19th-century photography, involved coating paper with egg ...
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...