"Tract Distributor"

Charles Samuel Keene

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This design for a wood-engraving concerns an exchange between a woman who distributes tracts and a boy shoe black. The related caption (inscribed on a separate piece of paper) reads: 'Tract M'M. Thank'ee M'M. Have you shoes blacked by a nice little boy M'M!' (suggesting that the boy only accepts a tract to try to drum up trade). Keene was a leading British illustrator who worked for Punch between 1864 and 1890. His imagery generally focused on humorous situations in humble surroundings, unlike his contemporary George Du Maurier who satirized London society.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.

Metropolitan Museum of Art