Skip to main content

Secondary sourceArtifact1925-1935

Staalkoning Cigar Tin

Fa. Numan · 1925-1935

A Dutch cigar tin from the 1920s-1930s decorated with a portrait of Andrew Carnegie, showing his image used as a symbol of wealth in advertising.

This commercial tin uses Carnegie's portrait and nickname 'Steel King' to market cigars, showing his fame as an industrial icon.

Ask Andrew Carnegie about this sourceView the original(opens in new tab)
Photo of a rectangular tin with a hinged lid, blue background, showing a man with white hair and a cigar in an orange-red octagonal frame with factory chimneys. Gold lettering reads STAALKONING and ELEGANT.
Staalkoning ('Steel King') cigar tin featuring Andrew Carnegie, Fa. Numan, Amsterdam, 1925-1935. Museum Rotterdam.

About this source

What it is

This is a rectangular tin with a hinged lid, made by the Dutch firm Numan in Amsterdam between 1925 and 1935 for a cigar brand called 'Staalkoning' ('Steel King'). The lid shows a portrait of a white-haired man with a cigar, identified as Andrew Carnegie, framed against smoking factory chimneys.

Why it matters

By the 1920s, Carnegie's image had become widely recognizable as a symbol of industrial success and wealth, used here to sell cigars in the Netherlands years after his death. This shows how famous business figures could become commercial icons, their likeness used for marketing purposes without direct connection to the product itself.

Look closer

  • Why might a cigar company choose Carnegie's face and the nickname 'Steel King' to sell its product?
  • What does the factory-chimney background suggest the advertisers wanted customers to associate with Carnegie?
  • What does this object tell us about how Carnegie was remembered in Europe after his death?

This artifact is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Andrew Carnegie on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

More Andrew Carnegie sources

Meet the AI Andrew Carnegie →
Document

Primary source

The Gospel of Wealth

Andrew Carnegie · June 1889

Front cover of a dark blue cloth-bound book with a textured fabric surface and a spine along the left edge, showing no visible title or text in this view.Book

Primary source

The Autobiography of Andrew Carnegie

Andrew Carnegie · 1920 (published posthumously)

Black-and-white page from Harper's Weekly, July 16, 1892, showing a wood engraving titled The Homestead Riot. Armed men in bowler hats and uniforms stand in a crowd near barges, with smoke rising behind a large building. Men in the foreground, one with a bandaged head, walk away from the scene.Newspaper article

Primary source

The Homestead Riot

W. P. Snyder · 16 July 1892

Black-and-white studio portrait of an elderly man with white hair, a full white beard, and a dark suit with a white shirt and dark tie, against a black background, looking toward the viewer.Photograph

Primary source

Portrait of Andrew Carnegie

1913

Typed letter on cream paper from Andrew Carnegie's office, 2 East 91st Street, New York, dated April 18th, 1905, to Chancellor James R. Day of Syracuse University, confirming $150,000 for the library building, signed by P. Secretary.Letter

Primary source

Andrew Carnegie Papers

Andrew Carnegie · 18 April 1905

Ready when you are

Start chatting with Andrew Carnegie now.

20 messages free · No credit card · Available in 50+ languages.

Trial Humy for freeGet a quote for institutions