Hilda Clark, from the Actresses series (N246), Type 1, issued by Kinney Brothers to promote Sporting Extra Cigarettes 1888 - 1892

Editor: Here we have a rather intriguing photographic print: "Hilda Clark, from the Actresses series (N246)," created by the Kinney Brothers between 1888 and 1892. I find her gaze particularly compelling. What grabs your attention when you look at this portrait? Curator: Well, isn't she a dream? For me, it’s that mix of glamour and, dare I say, early advertising savvy. These were trading cards distributed with Sporting Extra Cigarettes. It's like early Hollywood colliding with...well, tobacco! What does that say about the era and how they were perceived in this time? Editor: That's fascinating! So, this was basically a marketing tool, using Hilda's image to sell cigarettes? Curator: Precisely. A beauty, a star…packaged with vice! I find it so curious. Look at her attire; very stylized and a sort of proto-celebrity endorsement, almost a silent movie preview on cardboard. I wonder what she thought of being a small card nestled within a cigarette pack! How do you feel it adds or detracts from our perception of her? Editor: It definitely complicates things. It makes me wonder about the ethics of using someone's image like that, even back then. Still, I am a bit captivated now by the narrative behind it. Curator: I agree, the tension is what makes it intriguing, right? The beautiful image used as an advert…I learn something every time I observe the odd history it tells.