Portuguese Barthelemy, The Wreck, from the Pirates of the Spanish Main series (N19) for Allen & Ginter Cigarettes 1886 - 1891

This small chromolithograph, one of a series depicting pirates, was produced by Allen & Ginter for distribution in cigarette packs. The commercial function of the image, to promote the consumption of tobacco, sits oddly with the romantic subject of the pirate, here named as Portuguese Barthelemy. The image operates through stereotypes, with the swarthy Barthelemy wearing a flamboyant headscarf, while in the background his ship is wrecked and men drown in the waves. The artist probably had little knowledge of the real Barthelemy. Instead, he relied on popular imagery of pirates, images that circulated widely in adventure stories. The rise of mass media in the late nineteenth century created new opportunities for commercial imagery to reach a wide audience. Trade cards like this are now valuable historical resources, allowing us to reconstruct popular beliefs and trace the institutional histories of advertising and the culture of collecting.