Joseph R. Hawley of Connecticut, from the Presidential Possibilities series (N124) issued by Duke Sons & Co. to promote Honest Long Cut Tobacco

Art Historical Context

This 1888 commercial color lithograph features Joseph R. Hawley, a prominent Connecticut senator and Civil War general, as part Duke Sons & Co.’s “Presidential Possibilities” series. Produced to promote Honest Long Cut Tobacco, the card exemplifies how 19th-century manufacturers used small, collectible prints to advertise their products. Measuring just over four by two-and-a-half inches, it was designed to be slipped into tobacco packages, turning everyday purchases into opportunities for collecting portraits of political figures. Color lithography allowed for bright, affordable imagery that reached a broad audience, making these cards early examples of mass-market advertising. The series capitalized on the excitement surrounding the 1888 presidential election, presenting potential candidates like Hawley alongside other notable men. Such ephemera offers a vivid glimpse into Gilded Age politics and commerce, where tobacco companies blended patriotism, celebrity, and consumer culture. Today preserved in the Metropolitan Museum’s Burdick Collection, the print highlights the historical value of commercial art. These once-disposable cards now serve as tangible records of how visual media shaped public interest in national figures long before modern campaign posters or social media.

About the Artist

W. Duke, Sons & Co.|The Giles Company · 1870–1920

**W. Duke, Sons & Co.: Pioneers of Chromolithographic Trade Card Art** W. Duke, Sons & Co., an American tobacco manufacturer, emerged from the entrepreneurial vision of Washington Duke (1820–1905) and his sons in Durham, North Carolina. After the Civil War, Washington abandoned farming in 1874 to join his eldest son, Brodie L. Duke, in the burgeoning tobacco trade, establishing a factory that for...