Tenement House, New York City, from the Habitations of Man series (N113) issued by W. Duke, Sons & Co. to promote Honest Long Cut Smoking and Chewing Tobacco

Art Historical Context

This small but vivid commercial color lithograph from 1890 captures a tenement house in New York City as part of the “Habitations of Man” series (N113). Produced by W. Duke, Sons & Co. and printed by The Giles Company for the American Tobacco Company, the card was distributed to promote Honest Long Cut Smoking and Chewing Tobacco. Measuring just over four by two-and-a-half inches, it exemplifies the colorful trading cards that tobacco firms inserted into product packages during the late nineteenth century, turning everyday advertising into miniature windows on the world. Color lithography allowed such images to be reproduced affordably in bright, eye-catching hues, making the cards both promotional tools and collectible keepsakes. The subject reflects the era’s fascination with urban life; tenement buildings housed the growing immigrant population of New York, offering viewers a glimpse of contemporary city living alongside more exotic dwellings from other cultures in the same series. Today the print resides in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Jefferson R. Burdick Collection, where ephemera like this card preserves the visual culture of everyday commerce and the changing American cityscape.

About the Artist

American Tobacco Company|The Giles Company|W. Duke, Sons & Co. · 1826–1909

**American Tobacco Company (1890–1911)** Founded on January 31, 1890, in Durham, North Carolina, by James Buchanan Duke, the American Tobacco Company emerged from the consolidation of five major U.S. tobacco manufacturers: W. Duke & Sons, Allen & Ginter, Goodwin & Company, W.S. Kimball & Co., and Kinney Brothers. Under Duke's aggressive leadership, it rapidly achieved monopoly status, controlling...