Private, Ancient and Honorable Artillery, Boston, Massachusetts, V.M., from the Military Series (N224) issued by Kinney Tobacco Company to promote Sweet Caporal Cigarettes

Art Historical Context

Step into the vibrant world of 19th-century American ephemera with this petite commercial color lithograph from1888, produced by the Kinney Brothers Company. Titled *Private, Ancient and Honorable Artillery, Boston, Massachusetts V.M.*, it hails from the Military Series (N224), set of collectible trading cards inserted into Sweet Caporal cigarette packs. These cards, measuring just 2¾ × 1½ inches, were clever marketing tools that turned smoking into a gateway for hobby collecting, featuring profiles of soldiers to evoke patriotism and camaraderie. The artwork spotlights a private from Boston's famed Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company, chartered in 1637 as one of America's oldest militia units. Rendered in bold chromolithography—a pioneering color printing technique that brought vivid hues to mass-produced items—this profile captures the era's military pride amid post-Civil War nostalgia. Tags like "Military," "Men," and "Profiles" (with a nod to "Smoking") highlight its focus on uniformed valor, blending heroism with tobacco promotion. Housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Jefferson R. Burdick Collection, this card exemplifies how everyday commerce fueled popular culture. It reminds us how fleeting objects like these preserved slices of history, inviting us to ponder the intersections of war, trade, and tradition.

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...