Officer, 2nd Battery, Maryland, National Guard, from the Military Series (N224) issued by Kinney Tobacco Company to promote Sweet Caporal Cigarettes 1888

Kinney Brothers Tobacco Company produced this small lithograph card as part of a promotional series for Sweet Caporal Cigarettes. The card depicts a crisply rendered, high-ranking officer of the Maryland National Guard. These cards, like many tobacco advertisements of the time, offer a romanticized vision of military service, one divorced from the complexities of race, class and the realities of war. The late 19th century saw the rise of Jim Crow laws and the consolidation of racial hierarchies across the United States. The figure’s whiteness is thus not incidental; it is a marker of power and privilege in a society deeply divided along racial lines. Consider how the commercial context of this image - its function as a promotional item - shapes its message. The card invites consumers to associate smoking with notions of patriotism and masculine authority, eliding the brutal realities of military life. While seemingly innocuous, this image subtly reinforces the power structures of its time.