Card 822, Fanny Rice, from the Actors and Actresses series (N45, Type 2) for Virginia Brights Cigarettes 1885 - 1891

This is a photograph of Fanny Rice, an American stage actress, made by Allen & Ginter for Virginia Brights Cigarettes. It's a small card, part of a series that was produced to be collected – a very different context for photographic portraiture than we might expect today. The sepia tones and the card's very texture speak to the industrial processes used in its making. Photography had become a means of mass production by this point in the late 19th century, and these cards were essentially advertisements, leveraging the popularity of actors and actresses to sell cigarettes. The image itself, though, is carefully posed, and suggests a kind of intimacy with the performer. It is a beautiful photograph. In a way, these cards collapse any distinction between art, craft, and commercial design. They remind us that all objects – no matter how seemingly insignificant – are embedded in systems of labor, politics, and consumption.