Borneo, from the Types of All Nations series (N24) for Allen & Ginter Cigarettes 1889

This small chromolithograph was made by Allen & Ginter, an American tobacco company, as part of a series of collectible cards included in cigarette packs. Printed on thin card stock using a chromolithographic process, the image depicts a man from Borneo, his skin rendered in shades of brown, a red head wrap, and distinctive earrings. Chromolithography allowed for mass production of colorful images, which democratized visual culture, but also furthered colonial narratives. The card served as a marketing tool, creating desire around a globalized product, cigarettes, and also a form of what we might call early anthropology. The image, divorced from its source, exoticized its subject as a consumable image. The intense labor involved in tobacco cultivation, processing, and distribution is indirectly referenced, yet obscures the exploitative conditions often endured by workers, from enslaved people in the Americas to sharecroppers in the American South. Considering this card's materiality and context encourages us to reflect on the complex relationship between art, industry, and representation.