Card Number 6, Fanny Rice, from the Actors and Actresses series (N145-4) issued by Duke Sons & Co. to promote Cameo Cigarettes 1880s

This is Card Number 6, Fanny Rice, from the Actors and Actresses series, made by W. Duke, Sons & Co. to promote Cameo Cigarettes. These cards, like so many others in the late 19th century, were not produced as art, but rather as promotional material. Here we see Fanny Rice, an actress of the time, not in a theatrical scene but in a posed portrait meant to capture her beauty and allure. The card participates in the burgeoning celebrity culture of the late 1800s, where actors and actresses became public figures whose images were widely circulated and collected. It’s interesting to consider the institutional context here: Duke, Sons & Co. using images of actresses to sell cigarettes, embedding the world of theater within the world of commerce. Understanding this artwork requires us to look beyond traditional art historical resources, to archives of advertising, theater history, and the social history of celebrity culture. It reminds us that the meaning of an image is always contingent on its social and institutional context.