Sea Girt, New Jersey, from the Surf Beauties series (N232), issued by Kinney Bros. 1889

This chromolithograph, titled "Sea Girt, New Jersey," was produced by the Kinney Brothers Tobacco Company as part of their "Surf Beauties" series. The process of chromolithography was revolutionary for its time, allowing for mass production of color images. Look closely, and you'll notice the image is created from many tiny dots of color. This technique, while now commonplace, demanded skilled labor in its initial execution, with artisans meticulously layering colors to achieve the desired effect. Here, we see a woman in a red bathing suit wading in the ocean, rendered with a level of detail that would have been impressive for a mass-produced item. The material of the print itself, humble paper, belies the complex process used to create the image, a process directly tied to the rise of consumer culture and the industrialization of image-making. Considering "Sea Girt, New Jersey" through the lens of its making allows us to reflect on the broader social and economic forces that shaped its creation and consumption.