The Bridal Veil, from the Transparencies series (N137) issued by W. Duke, Sons & Co. to promote Honest Long Cut Tobacco

The Bridal Veil, from the Transparencies series (N137) issued by W. Duke, Sons & Co. to promote Honest Long Cut Tobacco

W. Duke, Sons & Co.

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Trade cards from the "Transparencies" series (N137), issued in an unnumbered set of 25 cards in the late 1880s by W. Duke, Sons & Co. to promote Honest Long Cut Tobacco. Each image is printed on very thin paper, intended to be transparent when held up to the light.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Bridal Veil, from the Transparencies series (N137) issued by W. Duke, Sons & Co. to promote Honest Long Cut TobaccoThe Bridal Veil, from the Transparencies series (N137) issued by W. Duke, Sons & Co. to promote Honest Long Cut TobaccoThe Bridal Veil, from the Transparencies series (N137) issued by W. Duke, Sons & Co. to promote Honest Long Cut TobaccoThe Bridal Veil, from the Transparencies series (N137) issued by W. Duke, Sons & Co. to promote Honest Long Cut TobaccoThe Bridal Veil, from the Transparencies series (N137) issued by W. Duke, Sons & Co. to promote Honest Long Cut Tobacco

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.