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

This small card was printed by the Kinney Tobacco Company to promote Sweet Caporal Cigarettes. The chromolithographic print depicts a Captain of Artillery in Kingston, Jamaica. Mass-produced through industrial printing methods, it represents a shift from handcrafted art towards commercial products. The flat, graphic style, with its bold outlines and simplified forms, conveys the image quickly and efficiently. Lithography allowed for the swift reproduction of colorful images, perfectly suited for mass distribution. The card’s significance lies in its connection to broader social issues of labor, politics, and consumption in the late 19th century. Tobacco companies like Kinney relied on both the labor of enslaved people and the mass production of goods like these cards to build an empire. It blurs the boundary between art and everyday life, and its existence speaks to how the rise of industrial capitalism forever transformed the very idea of making.