Caricatured Haitian, 50 Centimes, from the series Coins of All Nations (N72, variation 2) for Duke brand cigarettes 1889

This lithograph, printed by W. Duke, Sons & Co. between 1870 and 1920, comes from a series of cigarette cards called "Coins of All Nations." It's easy to overlook these small, mass-produced cards. Yet they offer a pointed view of the world. The coins, in this case from Haiti, are shown as novelties. Here, the coin is brought to life with a deeply racist caricature of a person. This unsettling combination tells us something important about the networks of exchange between North America and the rest of the world at the turn of the century. While the card presents an image of global diversity, the manufacturing process tells a different story. Printed using industrial techniques, and given away with the purchase of tobacco, these cards reveal a system in which entire countries and cultures were reduced to commodities. This lithograph reminds us that even the most innocuous-seeming objects can reveal hidden histories of labor, politics, and consumption.