Tennis, from World's Dudes series (N31) for Allen & Ginter Cigarettes 1888

This is a lithograph of a tennis player, made around 1888 by Allen & Ginter, a cigarette company based in Richmond, Virginia. This card is from a series called "World's Dudes," part of a larger trend of using collectible cards to promote tobacco products. But beyond advertising, what can this image tell us about the social history of sport and leisure? Notice the subject’s attire, a striped blazer, cap, and the monocle, which all speak to the upper-class associations of tennis at this time. The late 19th century saw a boom in organized sport, and the imagery of "dudes" engaged in leisure activities spoke to a burgeoning consumer culture. To fully understand this card, we might consult business histories of tobacco companies, visual culture studies of advertising, and sociological research on the rise of leisure in the Gilded Age. The meaning of art is always contingent on the social and institutional contexts that shape its production and reception.