France, from the National Flags series (N195) issued by Wm. S. Kimball & Co. 1891

Curator: Here we have an advertisement trade card, "France," from the National Flags series by Wm. S. Kimball & Company, dating to 1891. It's currently held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. What's grabbing you? Editor: The immediate thing that strikes me is the juxtaposition. The elegance of the Tricolore flag presented in colored pencil with this "Mechanic's Long Cut" tobacco branding at the bottom. It is jarring, even comical. Curator: Right, this would have been slipped into packs of tobacco, premiums that also served as advertisements. It gives you a peek into how national identity and consumerism intertwined at the time, this symbol of liberty used to sell tobacco. Editor: Exactly. Think about the means of production, too. These cards were churned out en masse, cheap labor producing objects linking 'high' ideals with the gritty reality of factories and tobacco farms. It reveals some fascinating context on how products like this informed popular understanding of "Frenchness" at the time. Curator: And even on another level, flags themselves as potent symbols, aren't just representations of nations, they become objects we consume. It raises all sorts of interesting questions. How do we imbue simple color combinations with such powerful emotional meaning? Editor: I agree. The tasseled rope hanging off the flag pole feels almost like stage dressing—presenting France, selling France... as both a nation and a product. It is a very material object of identity—reproduced, commodified, and circulated to normalize these values across diverse populations of consumers. Curator: Definitely a merging of the symbolic with the pragmatic. Food for thought. Editor: Yes, I'm off to consider the political economy of tobacco advertising. Thanks for pointing this piece out!