Mexican, from World's Smokers series (N33) for Allen & Ginter Cigarettes

Art Historical Context

This charming 1888 commercial colorograph belongs to Allen & Ginter’s “World’s Smokers” series (N33), a set of trading cards distributed with packs of cigarettes. The tiny sheet, measuring just 2¾ by 1½ inches, depicts a Mexican man in profile enjoying a smoke, rendered in bright, flat colors typical of late-nineteenth-century lithography. Produced as promotional ephemera rather than fine art, the card was designed to be collected, traded, and pasted into albums by enthusiastic smokers. Allen & Ginter, a leading American tobacco firm, capitalized on the era’s fascination with global cultures and the growing popularity of cigarette smoking. The “World’s Smokers” series presented men from many nations in traditional or characteristic dress, subtly promoting both the product and an idealized vision of international tobacco use. Color lithography allowed these small images to be printed quickly and affordably in large quantities, turning everyday advertising into miniature works of popular art. Today the card is preserved in the Metropolitan Museum’s Burdick Collection of printed ephemera. Its survival offers a vivid glimpse into Victorian-era marketing, the rise of chromolithography as a mass medium, and the cultural role of tobacco in connecting people across borders.

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...