CIGAR BOX LITHOGRAPHS

Humber shares inspirational stories behind historic cigar box lithographs in this newest volume of a multi-part series.

Since the 2018 publication of the first volume of Cigar Box Lithographs, the author has shared with readers beautiful and vibrant antique images, using the illustrated cigar boxes (which “were produced at considerable expense….to entice both old and new puffers”) to tell inspirational stories about “heroes of our past.” Containing more than 100 vignettes, featuring subjects from political figures and artists to fictitious characters like “Irish Lad” and “Jack Pot,” the book begins with lithographs that depict the successes of Irish-American boxer John L. Sullivan, highlighting his personal biography and the way in which lithographs of his bouts transformed him into an “iconic celebrity.” In addition to profiling then-contemporary celebrities like Sullivan or Shakespearean actor Junius Brutus Booth, many cigar box lithographs of this era featured historic figures, such as Sir Walter Raleigh or Thomas Jefferson. While the text does an admirable job spotlighting the role of cigar box lithographs in preserving history, it often does so at the expense of critical historical analysis. The laudatory profile of President Jefferson, for instance, leaves out the problematic aspects of his biography; likewise, while acknowledging the existence of racial stereotyping in lithographs, there is no meaningful effort to contextualize the ways in which images of Jewish immigrants, Black people, and Indigenous peoples reinforced and solidified white supremacist stereotypes, particularly given the book’s convincing argument as to the cultural significance of cigar box lithographs. The book’s strength, however, lies not in its anodyne vignettes, but in its well-designed layout and inclusion of full-color, high-quality reproductions of lithographs, along with an ample assortment of photographs, paintings, and other historical ephemera. In contrast to contemporary “cheap digital mass marketing,” the hyper-detailed, richly adorned artistic style of lithographs remains an enduring, iconic evocation of 19th- and early 20th-century pop culture.

A visual masterpiece hindered by an often-hagiographic narrative.