Tobaggan, from the Novelties series (N228, Type 5) issued by Kinney Bros.

Art Historical Context

Step into the lively world of late 19th-century American advertising with *Tobaggan, from the Novelties seriesN228, Type 5)*, a charming commercial color lithograph issued the Kinney Brothers Tobacco Company in 9. This petite print, measuring just 2 /8 × 1 9/16 inches, captures the joyful thrill of boys tobogganing down a snowy hill—a snapshot of winter fun that would have delighted collectors tucking it into cigarette packs. Part of the Met's Jefferson R. Burdick Collection, it exemplifies the ephemera that turned everyday tobacco products into treasure troves of visual delight. Chromolithography, the medium here, was a breakthrough technique allowing vibrant, multi-color images to be mass-produced affordably, revolutionizing commercial art. Kinney Bros., a prominent tobacco firm, leveraged this to create insert cards like those in their N228 Novelties series, blending whimsy with brand promotion. These cards fueled a collecting craze among children and adults, foreshadowing modern trading cards and highlighting how everyday leisure activities became cultural icons. Today, this unassuming print offers a window into Gilded Age youth culture and the clever marketing that made ephemera enduring art, preserved for us in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Drawings and Prints department.

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...