E.C. Carter, Runner, from World's Champions, Series 2 (N29) for Allen & Ginter Cigarettes 1888

This is ‘E.C. Carter, Runner’, a lithograph trading card that was produced by Allen & Ginter, a cigarette company, as part of a series called ‘World's Champions’. These chromolithograph cards were printed in mass scale. Each one would have been one of dozens included in packs of cigarettes. The images were printed using multiple lithographic stones. These stones would have been worked by skilled artisans, each applying a different color to build up a complete image. Allen and Ginter was tapping into the public’s growing interest in sporting heroes as a way to sell their product. The very process of lithography is crucial to understanding this image. It’s an industrial process through and through, part and parcel of a growing culture of mass production and consumption. These cards are a reminder that even images of individual achievement are inevitably tied to the systems that make them possible.