The mid-19th century civil war in Cuba, the political unification of Germany and the use of steam power for offset printing significantly influenced Florida history. The ink and stone of the German lithographer became the successful medium by which Cuban cigars, produced in Florida, were promoted in advertisement art throughout the world. It was an art form of extraordinary detail and exquisite beauty, and one which provides a window to the intertwined cultural legacies of Cuba and Florida.
Florida's Hispanic Heritage From its discovery by Ponce de Leon in 1513 to the present, "La Florida" has always been affected by the politics of Spain or Cuba. Even after Florida was purchased by the United States from Spain in the 1819 Adams-Onis treaty, the new Southern territory continued to be influenced by 19th century events in Cuba. Spain Develops Free Trade in Cuba By the late 1820s only Cuba and Puerto Rico remained under Spanish domination. Although Spain lost her other New World colonies, the Spanish Crown was determined to maintain control of Cuba as a possible embarkation point to eventually reconquer her lost empire. In 1817, Spain passed the Decreto Real, a liberal trade agreement which opened Cuba to world markets for the exportation of coffee, sugar and tobacco. The Spanish government hoped that a surge in the Cuban economy would be rewarded with political loyalty. Economically, the Decreto Real stimulated an extraordinary growth of tobacco plantations, developed a cigar industry, and resulted in the formation of a prosperous middle class of cigar making artisans. However, instead of developing allegiances to Spain, prosperity catalyzed a momentum for independence from Spain. The Cuban Economic Renaissance
Evolution of the Cuban Cigar Industry In its formative years, the process of cigar making in Cuba was relatively simple. Tobacco farmers usually rolled a few cigars as a supplemental income. In the early 1830s, a group of enterprising businessmen known as brokers purchased cigars from the farmers in small bundles, placed brand names on them, and sold the cigars to Havana merchants for distribution. Several brokers later established small cigar shops, called chinchales, and hired tobacco farmers from the country to produce cigars in Havana. The cigars were usually exported while scrap tobacco left over from making cigars was used to produce cigarettes for local consumption.
The need for skilled cigar making artisans created a small but prosperous middle class of cigar workers in Cuba's urban centers. By 1853, the silhouettes of factory buildings along the Havana skyline indicated the success of both cigar and cigarette manufacturing. Hundreds of accredited brand names were officially registered, and by 1859, there were 1,295 Cuban cigar and cigarette shops which employed more than 15,000 workers, most of them in Havana. Apprenticeships for Cigar Workers In Cuba, cigar workers underwent an arduous apprenticeship before they were considered qualified to work in a factory, a practice which was later brought to Florida. Strippers learned how to cut the stem out of the tobacco leaf. A selector was trained how to separate the tobacco leaves by size, color and quality. Packers were skilled in carefully inspected finished cigars to ensure that they were rolled evenly and packed them in bundles or boxes. The most talented cigar workers were cigar rollers who often apprenticed for a year before qualifying as a cigar making artisan. They learned the skillful art of how to select and blend the proper amount of filler leaf to give a cigar its desired flavor. To make a cigar, filler tobacco was placed in the palm of their hand and carefully rolled together so that the finished cigar would burn evenly. They also learned how to select the proper size of wrapper leaf, cutting it with a knife, or chaveta. It was then evenly wrapped around the filler. The next stage of cigar making was to place the tobacco wrapper leaf on the cigar. Wrapper leaf was selected from the best quality shade wrapper tobacco available. Its color and flavor were crucial factors in the final stage of cigar making since it gave the outward appearance and aromatic qualities of the cigar. Lastly, the excess leaf at the lighting end of the cigar was clipped off evenly and a piece of wrapper leaf was placed on the smoking end with a vegetable celluloid. Cigars were made in hundreds of sizes, and their thickness was measured with a ring gauge. While the skills of Cuban cigar rollers were renown, another reason for the success of Cuban cigars was the tobacco used to make them. Cubans often compared the bouquet of Vuelta Abajo tobacco to the fragrance of tropical flowers. They claimed that only in the tropics could you grow the best quality tobacco leaf, a belief which was shared by connoisseur smokers throughout the world. The Lectors Cuban cigar workers became educated, thanks to the tradition of lectors, one of the most prestigious professions of the cigar industry. Lectors were paid by contributions made by the cigar workers. The more popular the lector, the higher the salary he could demand. Lectors were usually seated in a chair elevated above the cigar roller tables in a factory so their voices could be easily heard throughout the room. They began the work day by reading excerpts from a local newspaper, a newspaper from Spain, followed by readings from a novel or the works of a political philosopher. The selection of the book or topic of reading was voted upon by the cigar rollers. Although cigar workers may not have been able to read or write, they could easily quote Shakespeare, Voltaire, Zola and Dumas. Lectors also made cigar rollers aware of politics and world events, acquainting them with the political issues and questioning the political authority of Spain. As the Cuban cigar industry prospered, lectors were viewed by the Spanish authorities with increased suspicion.
Part 2 Revolution on the Horizon Cuba's economic prosperity connected the island's economy more closely to both European and American markets. By the 1840s, Spain began to fear the growing influence of Southern plantation owners who openly discussed annexation of Cuba to the United States, an idea which gained support from numerous Cuban landowners. Spain's fear proved to be well founded. While cigar rollers were becoming politicized by lectors in the factories, several Cuban land owners felt that annexation to the United States was in their best interest. In order to discourage annexationist sentiments, Spain reversed the economic gains made by the Decreto Real and enacted a series of restrictive taxes and trade impositions. As Cuba's prosperous international trade was threatened, political intrigue intensified. By 1848, Southerners in the United States established the Annexationist party which called for a free Cuba. They were supported by wealthy Cuban plantation owners. Cuba's cigar manufacturers opposed Spain's new restrictions on foreign trade since it affected the sale of cigars. In l853, a minor revolt in the tobacco region of Piñar del Rio awakened Spain's greatest fear that she would lose her "Pearl of the Antilles." Unfortunately for Spain, the economic renaissance created by the Decreto Real created a yearning for independence from Spain by most Cubans. In 1857, an economic "panic" in the United States created a sudden demand by American manufacturers to place high tariffs on goods manufactured abroad which increased the price of Cuban cigars sold in the United States and created economic disruptions in Cuba. Several Cuban cigar manufacturers considered moving production to the United States to penetrate the high tariff wall. With the outbreak of the American Civil War, Cuban cigar trade from 1861 to 1865 was completely disrupted. Then, Cuba had a civil war of its own. Cuba's Ten Years' War: 1868-1878 On October 10, 1868, Carlos M. de Cespedes, a prominent attorney and wealthy land owner, instigated the revolution known as Grito de Yara. It was immediately supported by thousands of politicized cigar workers, plantation owners and cigar manufacturers who collectively joined the revolt known as Cuba's Ten Year's War, from 1868 to 1878. Spain was cognizant of internal discord in Cuba prior to 1868 but did not anticipate the suddenness of the revolt and the extraordinary support it received. Spain was unprepared for a revolution of this magnitude, and immediately conscripted thousands of Cuban volunteers from the very lowest classes. Atrocities committed by volunteers against their fellow countrymen forced thousands to flee. Havana's docks were teeming with frantic people attempting to escape to New York, New Orleans or nearby Key West. By September 1869, over 2,000 Cubans lined the docks awaiting passage out of Cuba. Florida, only 90 miles from Havana, received a majority of the refugees. Their skills as cigar making artisans were to eventually revolutionize the economy of Florida, making it the leading center of Cuban cigar production in the world by 1900. The Invention of Stone Lithographic Printing Prior to Cuba's Ten Years War, both the domestic Cuban distribution of cigarettes and the international sales of cigars were accomplished through the use of advertisement art in the form of cigar bands, box labels and posters. Cuban advertisement art was produced with stone lithographic printing developed in Germany. In 1798, A German, Aloise Senefelder, invented a process of printing known as stone lithography. Senefelder discovered that a superior quality limestone mined in Bavaria made an excellent printing surface. Bavarian limestone was to the lithographic industry what Cuban tobacco was to the cigar trade. It was superior in quality, limited in quantity, and the basis for a successful printing industry. Stone lithographic printing was successful because it was at least seven times cheaper than the more expensive use of copper plate printing. The Process of Stone Lithographic Printing Senefelder used a printing ink which was a mixture of wax, soap and lampblack. A sketch was made directly upon the surface of the smoothly polished Bavarian limestone surface with the ink and wax mixture. After the ink dried, a weak acid solution was gently poured over the stone's flat surface. Those areas sketched with the wax and ink stood out in high relief from the slightly lower etched surface where no ink was applied. Next, the stone was washed with water to remove the acid solution. Then, printing ink was rolled onto the stone. The ink adhered only to the elevated wax and ink surface and was repelled from the damp stone surface. A piece of printing paper was applied to the stone, a reverse copy print was made. Innovations in Stone Lithography In the early 19th century, second and third generation lithographic artists refined stone lithography into a multi-colored art form. By the early 1820s, seven-color prints were produced in France, with a stone for each color used. The use of multiple colored inks and registration marks to assure proper overlay of colors for the final print brought a degree of sophistication to stone lithography which was first used by artists. It was only occasionally used for advertisement prints. The process of stone lithographic printing quickly spread to England and the United States. Stone lithographic printing techniques were brought to Cuba in 1827 when Luis Caire inaugurated the Havana Lithographic Work Shop. By 1839 a Frenchman, Francois Cosnier, began printing advertisement art for cigarette packs. Stone lithography used for advertisement art brought a new industry in Cuba which emerged simultaneously with the evolution of the Cuban cigar and cigarette trade. While cigarette advertisement art printed in Cuba was used primarily for local sales, cigars made from Cuban tobacco became world renowned and were printed by the finest printers in Germany, Klingenberg Printers in Detmold. When the Cuban tobacco industry developed in Florida after 1869, cigar manufacturers increasingly relied upon lithographers in Europe and the United States for their posters, bands and cigar box label prints. The German Exodus to the United States The exodus of Cubans to Florida in the 1870s occurred at the same time that Otto von Bismarck initiated the unification of Germany. Prior to unification, German confederacies contained unions which were a dynamic force in assuring laborers' economic stability. In order to unify Germany, Bismarck appealed to Germany's working class by claiming the new German government would accept the social responsibility previously carried out by unions. He successfully achieved a political liaison with the working class by eliminating the most powerful unions, replacing them with a social democracy in which the welfare of the people was protected by the State. The consequence of the Bismarck's anti-union policies resulted in an exodus of hundreds of skilled lithographers whose unions were seriously weakened or disbanded. Many skilled lithographers immigrated to the United States, especially to New York City. They arrived with their skilled lithographic talents, at the same time that skilled Cuban cigar makers brought their cigar making skills to Florida. The ink and stone of the German lithographer became the successful medium by which Cuban cigars, produced in Florida, were promoted in advertisement art throughout the world. Cuban Advertisement Art Produced in Germany Although German lithographers left their country during the political unification of Germany, lithographic firms throughout Germany still printed both commercial and advertisement art. Klingenberg Printers in Detmold were the second oldest printers in Germany. In the 1860s, they were one of Germany's first international corporations with agents in New York and Havana. Of all German lithographic firms, Klingenberg combined an aggressive international marketing strategy with the finest quality lithography available.
Even though Klingenberg faced growing competition from German lithographers who migrated to the United States in the 1870s, their quality of advertisement art work was known internationally for its sophisticated printing. Innovations in embossing and the gold gilding attracted some of the most prestigious cigar manufacturers to Klingenberg. Such cigar manufacturers as Vicente Martinez Ybor and Ignacio Haya left Cuba and began producing Cuban cigars in the United States, relying on Klingenberg Printers to produce their lithographic advertisement art.
From South Florida History Magazine, vol. 23, no. 4 (Fall 1995/Winter 1996), pp. 13-23. The contents of South Florida History Magazine are copyrighted ©1996.
Part 3 Cuban Exile Communities in Florida
A few cigar factories were established in Pensacola, Gainesville, Jacksonville, St. Augustine and Port Tampa, contributing to the overall disbursement of Cubans, their heritage, and the economic development of Florida. Cigar manufacturers who could afford German advertisement art continued to have their bands, labels and posters printed by Klingenberg, while others relied on the growing number of excellent lithographic companies in New York and Philadelphia which were operated by German lithographic artists. Cigars and the Industrial Revolution Florida's Cuban emigre communities were established at a time when cigars became the first mass market item of the American industrial revolution. After 1870, hundreds of millions of cigars were produced annually and the number of cigars produced nearly doubled each decade. There were cigar factories in every state of the union offering employment to hundreds of thousands of workers. By the 1870s, cigars had become a male status symbol throughout the Western world. The cigar industry developed in every major European nation, but the origins of tobacco in the New World, and the coveted Cuban tobacco gave a special status to Cuban-made cigars. Their quality was a benchmark for all other cigars produced. Talented German lithographic artists in the United States and Germany produced exquisite advertisement art for cigars, the fastest growing mass market product of the late 19th century. Steam Power and The Industrial Revolution The use of steam power was an aspect of the industrial revolution which also dramatically affected both stone lithographic printing as well as the cigar industry. The steam engine revolutionized stone lithography since rapid transfer methods made fine quality, mass-produced printing commercially feasible. A process of printing which previously took days was done in a matter of hours as thousands of prints were produced daily. The cigar industry, by far the fastest growing consumer item of the industrial revolution monopolized the stone lithographic industry. By 1900, 80 percent of all advertising art in the United States was produced for cigar bands, posters and labels. Florida's Unique Industrial Communities Unlike the diversified ethnic populations and economies of industrial cities in the North, Florida's late 19th century emigre communities were founded by Spanish-speaking immigrants and financed with both domestic and foreign capital. They produced one item, handmade cigars from Cuban tobacco. Florida's Cuban cigar industry did not displace any local workers from jobs, and often created additional business opportunities for the neighborhoods in which they settled. Northern cigar factories produced cigars primarily from domestic tobacco which was made into cigars by relatively unskilled cigar workers. In contrast, the arduous apprenticeship of Cuban cigar rollers and the use of Cuban Havana tobacco produced a quality cigar in constant demand by connoisseur smokers. This quality reputation of Cuban cigars continued as the cigar industry migrated northward into Florida from Cuba and southward as American cigar manufacturers moved production into Florida. German Lithographers in the United States After 1870, New York City directories were filled with the names of such German lithographic companies as Schumacher and Ettlinger, the Knapp Company, F. Hepenheimer and Company, George Schlegel, Witsch and Schmitt, all producing advertisement art for the cigar industry. It was often the color and image of a print which sold the product, and cigar manufacturers paid premium prices for quality advertisement art. New York lithographers developed a booming business supplying cigar manufacturers throughout the United States with advertisement art. By 1890, the most prestigious cigar companies used Klingenberg to produce their cigar art. Since an image was worth a thousand words and sold products, those manufacturers who could afford the finest commercial art hired Klingenberg. An Image Worth a Thousand Words The images associated with the sale of Cuban cigars in a world market gave prestige to Spanish brand names. After Cuban cigars were made in Florida and became a popular product, numerous American cigar manufacturers in northern cities who used domestically grown tobacco used Spanish-sounding brand names to promote sales of cigars. As a result, "La Zoos" was a brand of a Kalamazoo, Michigan, cigar manufacturer, while brands such as "El Lando," portraying Columbus landing in the New World, or the grammatically incorrect "El Cubanos" were popular names for domestically produced cigars. By the late 19th century, anything associated with a Spanish-sounding brand name was connected with status in the consumer cigar smoking market. The Golden Age of Lithography Cuba's early tobacco trade not only developed markets for the sale of cigars, but also stimulated the lithographic industry in Germany and the United States. By 1892, the competition of commercial lithographic companies in the United States resulted in the formation of a trust of 34 lithographers who formed American Lithographic Company. This marked the beginning of the Golden age of Lithography in U.S. printing, supplementing the skilled art forms of Klingenberg which remained in the American market until the advent of World War 1. The Golden Age of Lithography in the United States, from 1880-1914, was an era when the work produced by commercial stone lithography was dominated by brand names with a Spanish title. Manufacturers of domestic tobacco used Spanish titles for their brand names in an attempt to draw upon the prestige of a Cuban-made cigars. Some unscrupulous cigar manufacturers used Spanish brand names and claimed theirs were Cuban cigars, even though they may have contained only a sprig of Cuban tobacco leaf. Others even more unscrupulous did the same and produced cigars without a single ounce of Cuban tobacco. If a brand had a Spanish brand name, it was synonymous to quality by the average cigar smoker. Florida's Cuban emigre communities flourished in the last quarter of the 19th century because they produced the coveted Cuban-made cigar with Cuban tobacco. By 1895, approximately 10,000 Cubans resided in Florida, some 2.3 percent of the state's population. During the years leading to the Spanish American War, insurrectionist activities limited the amount of Cuban tobacco which was exported to the United States. Stockpiles of Cuban tobacco leaf allowed cigar centers such as Key West, Ybor City and West Tampa to survive, but Mart¡ City, relatively isolated from the main routes to receive Cuban tobacco, became virtually a ghost town by 1896. Cigar production in Florida dramatically declined until the end of the Spanish American War in 1898. Cubans in Florida After the Spanish American War Cubans who remained in Florida after the Spanish American War were a unique group of workers who frequently travelled from Key West to Tampa and Havana to visit relatives or to find employment if a strike came to their home town. A decade after the Spanish American War, many Cubans remained in Florida and the cigar industry continued to produce a vast array of images to attract customers to their cigars. In Florida alone, the cigar industry brought millions of dollars of revenue to the state, competing with lumber, citrus, tourism and phosphate as one of the leading source of Florida's revenue. By 1904, census records list information separately on the production of cigarettes and cigars, and Florida ranked third in the nation in the value of cigars produced. It was the leading industry of Florida when measured by value of products. By 1909, Florida's cigar industry gave employment to 12,280 wage earners and manufactured products valued at $21,575,000, representing 29.6 percent of the total value of the manufactured products of Florida. The Effects of World War I The outbreak of World War I had a disastrous effect both on the lithographic industry as well as the cigar trade. By 1911, the shipments of the coveted Bavarian limestone from Germany came to almost a standstill. With the advent of the War, sales of cigars declined and cigarette manufacturers shrewdly gave millions of cigarettes to the Red Cross for distribution to the soldiers. Both the quality of cigars and the quality of cigar label art declined as a consequence. By the end of the war, both the Havana cigar industry and the stone lithographic advertisement art faced a serious decline in production. The Decline of Stone Lithography and Cuban Cigars By the early 1920s the generation of skilled stone lithographic artists had achieved their heyday and many retired. The younger lithographers raised in the United States did not learn the fine skills of stone lithographic artistry which had produced a generation of exquisite advertisement art. Fewer colors were use to produce prints, poorer quality paper was used due to paper shortages during World War I, and the Spanish themes which had dominated sales for nearly four decades were replaced with more local oriented brand names for cigars. Because of a labor shortage, cigar machines were introduced during World War I to produce cigars. Although the first machines were a failure, machine-made cigars were perfected by the late 1920s and hand cigar rollers were rapidly becoming a profession of the past. Cigarette sales skyrocketed after World War I. Women began to smoke, and cheaper five-cent machine-made cigars were being mass produced. Development of Photolithography The post-WWII era witnessed the emergence of the first truly large scale, mass market economy as war production was converted to peacetime goods. As hand-rolled cigars were replaced with those made more cheaply by machines, the development of photomechanical printing was the death for stone lithographic printing. Almost overnight, an inexpensive printing technique replaced the expensive stone lithographic process. The simplicity of color separations brought with it an end to the exquisite artwork which characterized the Golden Age of Lithography. By the time of the Great Depression, "The Loveliest Bosom of Old Castille" was replaced with a simple photolithographic image with a name "No hick can forget, and it's a different business." The cigar industry of Florida gradually became mechanized as cheap machine-made cigars dominated sales. By the 1950s, both the traditions of hand-rolled cigar making and the exquisite advertisement art used to promote their sales had become a thing of the past.
Dr. L. Glenn Westfall serves as archivist for Klingenberg Printers in Bielefeld, Germany. He has recently written A Smoke Comes True: A 100 Year History of the Newmans in the Cigar Industry and The Mystique of Martí City: Florida's Short Lived Industrial Community, and is currently completing Advertisement Art Americana: Old World Printing for a New World Art. This article includes lithographs Dr. Westfall and his associate, Mr. Thomas Vance, have compiled in one of the largest private collections of stone lithographic proof books and advertisement art in the United States. From South Florida History Magazine, vol. 23, no. 4 (Fall 1995/Winter 1996), pp. 13-23. The contents of South Florida History Magazine are copyrighted ©1996. return to Cuban Cigars home page |
Florida's
Cultural Legacy: Tobacco, Steam & Stone 
After
the implementation of the Decreto Real, Cuba's exotic products of tobacco, sugar
and coffee were soon in great demand throughout world markets. By 1845, tobacco
replaced sugar as the major export item. The province of Vuelta Abajo had ideal
soil and climatic conditions to produce a tobacco leaf with an aromatic odor and
a mild flavor found nowhere else in the world. The sale of cigars made from
Vuelta Abajo tobacco soared as connoisseur smokers filled their humidors with
coveted Cuban cigars. The worldwide demand for Cuban tobacco in the 1840s was a
catalyst for Cuban economic, political and social change.
The
transformation of cigar making in Cuba from a cottage industry to factory
production during the first half of the 19th century was miraculous. Small
tobacco farms were consolidated into large tobacco plantations, and large scale
factory production in urban centers replaced the cottage industry. 
Prior
to Cuba's Ten Years War from 1868 to 1878, Klingenberg produced quality
lithographic advertisement art for Cuban cigar manufacturers who could afford
the most expensive quality advertisement art available. 
From
1868 to 1878, Cuba's struggle for independence resulted in three decades of
Cuban migration to Florida. Four emigre communities were established as model
industrial communities with factories, workers' cottages, clubs, grocery stores
and entertainment for the workers. Key West, a small island community with less
than 3,000 residents in 1869, became a city of 18,000 inhabitants by 1890. The
population in the Tampa Bay region was approximately 1,000 people in 1885. A
decade after the formation of Ybor City, Tampa Bay's population increased to
20,000. In 1890, Ocala's Mart¡ City was established in north central Florida as
a Cubans-only exile community on vacant land. A few years later, Martí City had
a population of nearly 700 Cubans. West Tampa was formed in 1892 as Florida's
second all-Cuban community. It was incorporated as a city in 1895 with a
population of 2,335 people.
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