Card Number 102, Miss Mattie Vickers, from the Actors and Actresses series (N145-2) issued by Duke Sons & Co. to promote Cross Cut Cigarettes 1880s

Editor: Here we have Card Number 102, a promotional card from the 1880s for Cross Cut Cigarettes, featuring Miss Mattie Vickers. It's a photograph, a small print. I find it fascinating how advertising intersected with entertainment in the 19th century. What do you see in this piece beyond a pretty portrait? Curator: The commodification of leisure, entertainment, and even human image is what leaps out. Tobacco companies utilized new printing technologies and photographic processes to mass produce these cards, transforming celebrity into something tangible, collectable, disposable. Think about the labor involved - from the growing of tobacco to the printing and distribution of these cards. It's all connected. Editor: So you're saying the image itself isn't as important as its role in the economy? Curator: Not entirely. Consider the photographic paper, the ink. These materials become imbued with value precisely through their circulation and exchange. Duke Sons & Co. weren’t just selling cigarettes, they were selling a lifestyle, a fantasy built on the consumption of both the product and the image. Who was Mattie Vickers, and what did her endorsement mean for consumers? Editor: That's a good question. It does highlight the power of advertising to influence social norms and create desires. I hadn't considered the physical materials and their journey quite so much. Curator: Exactly. It pushes us to question what we value and why. What does it mean to own this image, this piece of advertising ephemera, today? What labour went into producing not just the card itself, but the very *idea* it represents? Editor: I see. This wasn't just about selling cigarettes. It's about selling an image of success through mass production and mass media. Thanks! Curator: A fruitful dialogue, indeed.