Tourist, from the Occupations for Women series (N166) for Old Judge and Dogs Head Cigarettes 1887

Curator: This delightful image, created by Goodwin & Company around 1887, is called "Tourist, from the Occupations for Women series". It was produced for Old Judge and Dogs Head Cigarettes, using colored pencils and print techniques. Editor: Right, first thought—it’s just so playful and energetic! She's clearly kitted out for mountain tourism but with this, sort of, over-the-top, almost burlesque edge. Those colors and shapes are something, they pop off the surface. Curator: Indeed! There's a tension here. She's labeled "tourist", a modern phenomenon then, but the clothing evokes something historical, almost theatrical, a kind of playful escapism maybe? Notice the suggestive skirt—do you think there’s a message being portrayed, even satirizing it? Editor: I think the artists were playing with this "new woman" idea, freedom but still…within a limited space? Like, look at the composition. She is literally 'on display'. Even the use of watercolor gives this sense of transience— a sketch, almost like she will disappear with the next fashionable trend. Curator: Good point. It's important to consider these were distributed with cigarettes, targeted at a very specific demographic. There is a symbolic load in this that speaks of both aspirations and cultural anxieties in rapidly modernizing societies. Tourism allowed one freedom but it could also carry the stigma of "frivolity". Editor: Oh, totally! The binoculars are there, yes for mountain gazing, but it adds this idea of watching, being watched... which, as you note, may have reflected a larger public fascination. Is she simply appreciating the mountains, or a novelty to be admired? Curator: And what about the mountains themselves in the background? Rather sketchily drawn! The emphasis is obviously on her performance of this tourist identity rather than accurate landscape art, this says everything. Editor: Definitely. Overall, she represents some interesting tensions. An emancipated adventurer of the future, yes—but within this very consciously constructed framework, that we now interpret as camp! Thanks, never saw cigarette card art in quite the same light.