Golden-Pencilled Hamburgh, from the Prize and Game Chickens series (N20) for Allen & Ginter Cigarettes 1891

This chromolithograph of a Golden-Pencilled Hamburgh chicken was printed by the Allen & Ginter cigarette company, probably sometime in the 1880s. These cards were included in packs of cigarettes as a promotional item, and they reflect the social and economic values of the Gilded Age in the United States. The image of the Golden-Pencilled Hamburgh chicken represents the Victorian era's fascination with selective breeding and animal husbandry. This card appeared in a series called “Prize and Game Chickens,” and it’s likely that the chicken was an actual prizewinning animal. This points to a late 19th-century culture that had a strong interest in agricultural science and the commodification of nature. Cigarette cards like this one offered ordinary Americans an accessible, affordable introduction to these ideas. As a historian, I find this card interesting because it represents a confluence of commerce, science, and culture in the late 19th century. Researching the company that produced it, as well as the popular trends in agriculture at the time, helps us to better understand this image.