Johannes Gutenberg, printer's sample for the World's Inventors souvenir album (A25) for Allen & Ginter Cigarettes

Johannes Gutenberg, printer's sample for the World's Inventors souvenir album (A25) for Allen & Ginter Cigarettes

Allen & Ginter

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Printer's samples for the collector's album "World's Inventors" (A25), issued in 1888 to promote Allen & Ginter brand cigarettes. Citing Burdick's "The American Card Catalog": "Souvenir albums of this type, as issued by the tobacco companies, were probably intended to replace the individual cards if the smoker so desired, or at least enable him to own the entire collection of designs without the difficulty attendant to obtaining all the individual cards in a set. Later, their popularity induced the tobacco companies to publish a few albums that had no card counterparts. All were given in exchange for coupons packed with the cigarettes, usually 75 or 100 coupons for each album...All date in the 1888-1890 period." This series depicting inventors was never issued as individual cards and only released in album form. However, this set of printer's proofs retain individual card form.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Johannes Gutenberg, printer's sample for the World's Inventors souvenir album (A25) for Allen & Ginter CigarettesJohannes Gutenberg, printer's sample for the World's Inventors souvenir album (A25) for Allen & Ginter CigarettesJohannes Gutenberg, printer's sample for the World's Inventors souvenir album (A25) for Allen & Ginter CigarettesJohannes Gutenberg, printer's sample for the World's Inventors souvenir album (A25) for Allen & Ginter CigarettesJohannes Gutenberg, printer's sample for the World's Inventors souvenir album (A25) for Allen & Ginter Cigarettes

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.