Card Number 606, Minnie Thorp, from the Actors and Actresses series (N145-3) issued by Duke Sons & Co. to promote Cross Cut Cigarettes 1880s

This card, featuring Minnie Thorp, was made by W. Duke, Sons & Co. as part of a series promoting Cross Cut Cigarettes. The card itself is modest: paper, printed with a photographic image and text. It’s a product of industrial capitalism, designed for mass consumption. The tobacco industry relied on advanced technologies for curing and processing the crop. Cigarette cards like these depended on photography and printing, also highly mechanized by the late 19th century. The image and the product are both carefully crafted to appeal to consumers. Thorp, an actress, is posed in a way that is both suggestive and exotic. This image was not meant to last; it was a small pleasure, intended to be collected, traded, and ultimately discarded along with the cigarettes. Think about the relationship between the fleeting nature of the card and the enduring nature of art. They are part of the same system, just different parts of it, with a hierarchy of value imposed upon them.