American Indian, Arapahoe Squaw, from Types of Nationalities (N240) issued by Kinney Bros.

Art Historical Context

This small color lithograph from 1890 belongs to the “Types of Nationalities” series (N240) issued by Kinney Brothers Tobacco Company as a cigarette premium. Printed on a single sheet that folds into a compact card measuring roughly 2 11/16 by 1 7/16 inches, the image depicts an Arapaho woman identified by the title “American Indian, Arapahoe Squaw.” Commercial color lithography allowed tobacco firms to produce thousands of brightly colored cards at low cost, turning everyday purchases into miniature collecting experiences. Such ephemera captured late-nineteenth-century public interest in ethnic and national “types,” often presenting stylized portraits that reflected prevailing cultural attitudes rather than individual likenesses. The card’s modest format and mass-production technique highlight how print media shaped popular ideas about identity and geography during the Gilded Age. Today the work resides in the Metropolitan Museum’s Jefferson R. Burdick Collection, where tobacco cards are studied as both graphic art and social documents. Its presence in a museum underscores the artistic and historical value of once-disposable commercial prints.

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...