Cyrus Hall McCormick, printer's sample for the World's Inventors souvenir album (A25) for Allen & Ginter Cigarettes 1888

Curator: Allen & Ginter, the celebrated tobacco company, produced this lithographic print in 1888, a printer's sample for their "World's Inventors" souvenir album, showcasing Cyrus Hall McCormick. Editor: He looks like a man weighed down by something, burdened almost, with those downturned eyes. It's the texture, perhaps, the mottled effect of the lithograph giving his face and beard such density. Curator: The weight you sense might stem from his prominent position; McCormick’s invention of the mechanical reaper transformed agriculture. He represents industrial progress. Editor: Industrial progress powered by tobacco. I see the mass production here, the layers of inked impressions built to form the portrait. This wasn't about singular genius, but about an entire industry reliant on the consumption and dissemination of images. Curator: Quite right, this card existed as part of a larger symbolic game. Tobacco cards became mini-billboards for progress. Inventors took their place alongside statesmen and athletes, creating a vision of shared American identity. Editor: That identity built upon layers of commodification. Lithography allowed for accessible and seemingly endless reproduction. Allen & Ginter capitalized on technological advancement both through McCormick’s legacy and their own print methods. The man, the invention, the portrait, the cigarette—all pieces feeding the insatiable appetite of industrializing America. Curator: This miniature portrait reflects the complex cultural exchange and visual strategies circulating during that era. Even a portrait so unassuming speaks to collective ambition and material desires. Editor: Yes, behind every "great man" portrait, lies an ecosystem of laborers, machines, and consumers inextricably linked through material culture. Food, inventions, advertising – each playing its own specific, significant part.