Right Hand Upper Cut, Billy Plimmer and Tommy Kelly, from the Boxing Positions and Boxers series (N266) issued by P. Lorillard Company to promote Red Cross Long Cut Tobacco 1893

This small chromolithograph was produced in the United States around 1888 by the P. Lorillard Company as a promotional item for their Red Cross Long Cut Tobacco. It depicts boxers Billy Plimmer and Tommy Kelly in the midst of a "Right Hand Upper Cut." These cards, like many others of the period, offer a fascinating glimpse into the social and cultural landscape of late 19th-century America. Boxing, though controversial, was gaining popularity as a spectator sport, embodying ideals of masculinity and physical prowess. The Lorillard Company, a major player in the tobacco industry, shrewdly capitalized on this trend by associating its product with the virile image of boxing. This was a period of rapid industrialization and urbanization, with new forms of mass media and consumer culture emerging. The card itself reflects this shift, utilizing new printing technologies to create colorful and eye-catching imagery for mass distribution. To understand the card's full significance, one might explore archives of tobacco advertising, sporting periodicals, and social histories of leisure and consumption in the late 19th century. The meaning of art is always contingent on its social and institutional context.