Private, Mount Corps, Kingston, V.M., Jamaica, from the Military Series (N224) issued by Kinney Tobacco Company to promote Sweet Caporal Cigarettes 1888

This small chromolithograph, produced by the Kinney Brothers Tobacco Company, was made to promote Sweet Caporal Cigarettes. It depicts a soldier of the Kingston, Jamaica, Mounted Corps. Produced at the height of European and American colonialism, the image speaks to the complex power dynamics of the late 19th century. The uniformed soldier embodies the authority of the British Empire in Jamaica, a site of sugar production and a key strategic location. The association of this figure with a tobacco product underscores the economic exploitation that was so central to colonial projects. In this context, the imagery of military strength and colonial power becomes a marketing tool, subtly linking the consumption of cigarettes with imperial dominance. To understand this image fully, we might turn to sources such as historical accounts of British colonialism, or records of the Kinney Brothers Tobacco Company, which provide additional insights into the social and institutional context that shaped it.