U.S. Frigate Tennessee, from the Naval Vessels of the World series (N226) issued by Kinney Bros. 1889

This small chromolithograph of the U.S. Frigate Tennessee was made by the Kinney Brothers Tobacco Company as part of a series. The image itself is printed on paper, a cheap and easily mass-produced material, and then adhered to card stock. The flat, graphic style is typical of chromolithography, a printing technique that involves using multiple lithographic stones, each with a different color, to create a full-color image. The process allowed for images to be reproduced quickly and in large quantities, perfect for mass-produced items like cigarette cards, which were essentially miniature billboards. Think about the complex labor relations involved in the production of an image like this. The factory workers creating the cards, the sailors aboard the depicted vessel, and the consumers of the tobacco product advertised on the card. All these roles were united, however ephemerally, through this small, mass-produced image. Looking at this card, we can see how commercial images became embedded in everyday life, blurring the lines between art, advertising, and the expansion of the American naval power.