Irish Jig, from National Dances (N225, Type 1) issued by Kinney Bros.

Art Historical Context

Step into the lively world 19th-century American ephemera with *Irish Jig*, a vibrant commercial color lithograph the *National Dances* seriesN225, Type 1), issued by the Kinney Brothers Tobacco Company 1889. This card, measuring just 2 3/4 × 1 1/2 inches, captures women in mid-twirl, their skirts flaring with joyful energy as they perform the iconic Irish folk dance. Produced as a promotional insert for tobacco products, it exemplifies the era's trade cards—affordable, collectible souvenirs that turned everyday purchases into treasures. Chromolithography, the medium here, was a breakthrough technique allowing mass production of vivid, multi-colored images from stone plates, making high-quality art accessible to the masses. Kinney Bros. leveraged this to celebrate global folk traditions, blending cultural homage with clever marketing amid America's growing fascination with national identities and immigration stories. Today, housed in The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Jefferson R. Burdick Collection, this ephemera highlights how commercial prints preserved snapshots of dance and dress, offering insights into Victorian leisure and ethnic pride. A delightful glimpse of history in your pocket!

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...