African, from Types of Nationalities (N240) issued by Kinney Bros.

Art Historical Context

Step into the vibrant world of 19th-century American advertising with *African, from Types of NationalitiesN240)*, a yet poignant commercial color lithograph produced by the Kinney Brothers Tobacco in 1890. This tiny ephemera—designed to fold neatly into cigarette packs at just 2 11/16 × 1 7/16 inches—was part of a popular series depicting "types" of nationalities, reflecting the era's fascination with global diversity through trade cards. Distributed to entice collectors and boost tobacco sales, these inserts captured everyday consumers' imaginations amid the Gilded Age's booming consumer culture. Crafted via chromolithography, a revolutionary color printing technique that allowed mass production of vivid, multi-hued images on a budget, this print exemplifies commercial art's role in democratizing visuals. Its unfolded size of 6 7/8 × 1 7/16 inches reveals intricate details in a compact format, blending artistry with marketing savvy. Today, housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Drawings and Prints department as part of The Jefferson R. Burdick Collection, it offers a window into how everyday objects perpetuated cultural stereotypes while showcasing technical innovation. Though small, this piece sparks big conversations about representation, commerce, and collecting—perfect for pondering how a cigarette insert became museum treasure.

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...