Private, Silver State Rifles, Denver, Colorado, from the Military Series (N224) issued by Kinney Tobacco Company to promote Sweet Caporal Cigarettes 1888

This chromolithograph, made by the Kinney Brothers Tobacco Company, was issued to promote Sweet Caporal Cigarettes. It’s one of many from the Military Series, and depicts a private from the Silver State Rifles in Denver, Colorado. Chromolithography was a complex printmaking process that emerged in the mid-19th century. It allowed for affordable, colorful images to be printed on a mass scale. Each color required a separate stone or plate, with the image built up layer by layer. The process demanded highly skilled artisans to execute, yet the images they created were often considered ephemera. Consider the social context: this card was designed to be collected, traded, and consumed along with tobacco products. Chromolithography blurred the lines between art, advertising, and consumer culture. The image speaks to turn-of-the-century ideas of nationalism, consumerism, and even the industrialization of leisure. This little card reminds us that materials and making are always embedded in a dense network of social and economic relations.