A Crack at the Truth, from the Snapshots from "Puck" series (N128) issued by Duke Sons & Co. to promote Honest Long Cut Tobacco

Art Historical Context

This charming 1888 commercial color lithograph, titled *A Crack at the Truth*, was produced by W. Duke, Sons & Co. as part of their “Snapshots from ‘Puck’” series (N128). Measuring just 2½ by 4⅜ inches, the small card was distributed to promote the company’s Honest Long Cut Tobacco. Created through the vibrant technique of color lithography, it reflects the era’s growing reliance on mass-produced printed ephemera to reach a wide audience of consumers. Issued during the height of the tobacco industry’s innovative marketing campaigns, such cards often featured humorous or satirical imagery drawn from the popular magazine *Puck*. The series cleverly combined entertainment with brand promotion, encouraging customers to collect the full set while enjoying the witty illustrations of men and urban scenes. Today, this print belongs to the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Jefferson R. Burdick Collection, which preserves thousands of early advertising cards and documents the intersection of commerce, popular culture, and graphic design in late-nineteenth-century America.

About the Artist

W. Duke, Sons & Co.|Knapp & Company · 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...