Card 37, from the Girl Cyclists series (N49) for Virginia Brights Cigarettes

Art Historical Context

Step into the vibrant world of 19th-century advertising with *Card 37* from Allen & Ginter's * Cyclists* series (49), produced in 1887 to promote Virginia Brights Cigarettes This diminutive albumen photograph, measuring just2 3/4 x 1 3/8 inches, captures a woman cyclist in mid-pedal, her determined gaze and flowing attire embodying the thrill of the era's bicycle boom. Allen & Ginter, pioneering American tobacco manufacturers, popularized collectible trade cards inserted into cigarette packs, turning everyday smoking into a hunt for colorful series like this one featuring athletic women on wheels. The late 1880s marked a cultural revolution for bicycles, dubbed "safety bikes" for their chain-driven design, which made cycling accessible—and liberating—for women. These cards celebrated that shift, portraying female riders as symbols of modernity, independence, and emerging gender equality, even as they slyly marketed tobacco. As ephemera, they bridged photography's artistic potential with mass consumerism, reflecting how everyday objects became coveted collectibles. Printed via the albumen process—using egg whites to bind light-sensitive silver salts for rich, detailed tones—these cards showcase early photographic precision in a portable format. Now part of The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Jefferson R. Burdick Collection, *Card 37* invites us to pedal through history, where a tiny image reveals big changes in women's lives and visual culture.

About the Artist

Allen & Ginter

Allen & Ginter, the pioneering American tobacco firm based in Richmond, Virginia, emerged around 1880 from the partnership of John F. Allen and Lewis Ginter, evolving from Allen's earlier John F. Allen & Company. Allen retired in 1882, succeeded by John Pope, yet the brand endured under Ginter's leadership, employing over 1,100 workers—mostly women—for hand-rolled cigarettes by 1886. Ginter, a Dut...