Society Islands, from Flags of All Nations, Series 2 (N10) for Allen & Ginter Cigarettes Brands

Art Historical Context

This charming commercial color lithograph from 1890 belongs to Allen & Ginter’s “Flags of All Nations, Series 2,” a set of small collectible cards distributed inside cigarette packages. Measuring just 2¾ by 1½ inches, the card features the flag of the Society Islands—part of present-day French Polynesia—alongside dozens of other national and regional banners. Produced through color lithography, a relatively new technology at the time, these cards brought bright, affordable imagery to a mass audience long before modern printing made such visuals commonplace. Allen & Ginter, a leading American tobacco firm, used these inserts as marketing tools to encourage brand loyalty and repeat purchases. Collectors often pasted the cards into albums, turning everyday smoking into an informal geography lesson. The Burdick Collection at the Metropolitan Museum preserves thousands of these ephemeral prints, reminding us how commercial ephemera can document both graphic design history and the global curiosity of the late nineteenth century. Today the card offers a window into Victorian-era fascination with distant places and the inventive ways companies blended advertising with education. Its modest size and vibrant inks speak to the era’s growing appetite for colorful, portable imagery that traveled from factory to pocket around the world.

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...