President of Mexico, from World's Sovereigns series (N34) for Allen & Ginter Cigarettes 1889

This is a lithograph trading card of the President of Mexico, produced by Allen & Ginter Cigarettes, sometime in the late nineteenth century. The image speaks to the public role of art at the time. These cards, collected and traded by consumers, visually mapped the world for an American audience, with the intention of selling cigarettes. Note the combination of portraiture and national symbolism, the eagle, which work together to compress Mexican national identity into a single, consumable image. What’s interesting is the institutional framework: how advertising, popular culture, and even the simple act of smoking became intertwined with the construction of national identity. The card subtly promotes a worldview that's shaped by commerce and American cultural dominance. To understand this image better, we need to look into the history of advertising, consumer culture, and the political relations between the United States and Mexico in the late 19th century. The meaning of art is always contingent on its social and institutional context.