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

Art Historical Context

Step into the vibrant world of 19th-century advertising with *American Indian, from Types of NationalitiesN240)*, a commercial color lithograph produced by the Kinney Brothers Company in 1890 This petite card, measuring just 6 7/8 × 1 7/16 inches when unfolded, was designed as an insert for tobacco products, sparking a collecting craze among enthusiasts. Part of a series depicting diverse "national types," it captures a stylized portrait of a Native American man reflecting the era's ethnographic curiosity amid America's rapid industrialization and westward expansion. Crafted via chromolithography—a revolutionary printing technique that allowed vivid, multi-color reproduction on a mass scale—this ephemera exemplifies commercial art's role in popular culture. The Kinney Brothers, innovative tobacco marketers, used these cards to boost sales, blending artistry with promotion in an age before digital media. Housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Jefferson R. Burdick Collection, it highlights how everyday objects preserved cultural snapshots. Though small, this piece offers a window into late Victorian fascination with identity and heritage, reminding us how art permeated daily life. Collectors today treasure it for its historical whimsy and the stories it evokes of a changing nation.

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...