A Short History of General Admiral Porter, from the Histories of Generals series (N114) issued by W. Duke, Sons & Co. to promote Honest Long Cut Smoking and Chewing Tobacco 1888

This small card was produced by W. Duke, Sons & Co. around 1900, using offset lithography, a printing process that allowed for mass production of colorful images. Look closely and you’ll notice the texture of the paper and the slightly misregistered colors, clues to the industrial processes employed. Tobacco cards like this were essentially miniature billboards, slipped into packets of “Honest Long Cut Smoking and Chewing Tobacco” to promote the brand. The image shows a portrait of General Admiral Porter, alongside a cannon and other nautical images, linking notions of military heroism to the pleasures of tobacco. The card's design is a careful balance of visual appeal and advertising. The company cleverly produced series like "Histories of Generals", to encourage consumers to collect and trade them. It’s a fascinating example of how images could be rapidly produced and circulated, tying cultural values to consumer goods. It’s all a far cry from a unique work of art, yet the same attention to materials, making, and context can deepen our understanding.