New York Ferry Boat, from the Types of Vessels series (N139) issued by Duke Sons & Co. to promote Honest Long Cut Tobacco 1889

This color lithograph of a New York ferry boat was produced around the turn of the 20th century by W. Duke, Sons & Co. as a promotional item for Honest Long Cut Tobacco. The print is made through lithography, a commercial printing technique that depends on the simple principle that oil and water don't mix. The image is applied to a stone or metal plate with a greasy medium, allowing multiple impressions to be made. This particular print would have been one of many, churned out to be included in packages of tobacco, incentivizing customers to purchase the product. The small card provides a glimpse of a vital element of the rapidly industrializing city, showing a ferry teeming with passengers, including horses and carriages, moving across the water. These cards, cheaply made and broadly distributed, challenge our traditional ideas about art and value, reminding us that images, like all material things, have a life within a larger economic system.