Man with rifle in row boat, from the Comic Powder Novelties series (N200) issued by Wm. S. Kimball & Co.

William S. Kimball & Company

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Trade cards from the "Comic Powder Novelties" series (N200), issued ca. 1890 by Wm. S. Kimball & Co. Each card instructs the collector to place a burning cigarette at the point of the gun on each card's image. The burning paper then mirrors the bullet's trajectory. Most examples here show the resulting burn marks.

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