A Short History: General William S. Rosecrans, from the Histories of Generals series (N114) issued by W. Duke, Sons & Co. to promote Honest Long Cut Smoking and Chewing Tobacco 1888

This promotional card was made by W. Duke, Sons & Co. to advertise tobacco products. It’s a chromolithograph, meaning it was printed using multiple lithographic stones, one for each color. The result is a vibrant, eye-catching image, which would have been traded and collected. But consider the means of production: the image would have been designed by a skilled draughtsman, then transferred to the stones by yet another artisan. Finally, a whole shop of workers would have been needed to run the printing presses. The card’s design reflects the era's fascination with both celebrity and commerce. General Rosecrans, a Union hero, is presented as a brand ambassador, his image literally wrapped in ribbons. The card embodies the industrial revolution's impact on visual culture and how mass production and advertising intersected with social values and the cult of personality. It reminds us that even seemingly simple objects carry layers of social and economic meaning, far beyond their surface appearance.