Annie Robe, from the Actresses series (N67) promoting Virginia Brights Cigarettes for Allen & Ginter brand tobacco products

Annie Robe, from the Actresses series (N67) promoting Virginia Brights Cigarettes for Allen & Ginter brand tobacco products

Allen & Ginter

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Trade cards from the "Actresses" series (N67), issued ca. 1888 to promote Virginia Brights and Dixie Cigarettes distributed by Allen & Ginter Tobacco Manufacturers.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Annie Robe, from the Actresses series (N67) promoting Virginia Brights Cigarettes for Allen & Ginter brand tobacco productsAnnie Robe, from the Actresses series (N67) promoting Virginia Brights Cigarettes for Allen & Ginter brand tobacco productsAnnie Robe, from the Actresses series (N67) promoting Virginia Brights Cigarettes for Allen & Ginter brand tobacco productsAnnie Robe, from the Actresses series (N67) promoting Virginia Brights Cigarettes for Allen & Ginter brand tobacco productsAnnie Robe, from the Actresses series (N67) promoting Virginia Brights Cigarettes for Allen & Ginter brand tobacco products

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.