Fanny Rice, from the Actresses series (N246), Type 2, issued by Kinney Brothers to promote Sporting Extra Cigarettes

Art Historical Context

Step into the vibrant world of late 19th-century American advertising with *Fanny Rice, from the Actresses series (246), Type 2*, a charming albumen photograph issued around 1890 by the Kinney Brothers Tobacco Company. petite portrait (just 3 1/16 × 2 7/8 inches) captures the poised elegance of actress Fanny Rice, one of many celebrated performers featured in the series to entice smokers of Sporting Extra Cigarettes. These were savvy marketing tools, tucked into cigarette packs to boost brand loyalty and fuel a burgeoning collecting craze among enthusiasts. Printed via the albumen process—coated with egg whites for its luminous tones and fine detail—this ephemera exemplifies the era's fusion of photography and commerce. Actresses like Rice embodied glamour and modernity, their images democratizing celebrity culture at a time when women on stage challenged Victorian norms. Housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Drawings and Prints department, this piece comes from the Jefferson R. Burdick Collection, a treasure trove of over 30,000 cards that preserves this slice of pop history. Today, it reminds us how everyday objects reflected societal shifts, blending portraiture with promotion in a pre-digital age of stardom.

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...