Card Number 242, Kiralfy Group, from the Actors and Actresses series (N145-2) issued by Duke Sons & Co. to promote Cross Cut Cigarettes 1880s

Curator: This is “Card Number 242, Kiralfy Group” from the Actors and Actresses series, a cigarette card dating back to the 1880s. What strikes you about this particular print? Editor: I’m really drawn to the surface texture of the card. You can see the aged paper so clearly and, you know, its original purpose was actually to promote Cross Cut Cigarettes. How do you think the context of its production impacts our understanding? Curator: It’s fascinating precisely because it bridges popular culture and artistic representation. These weren’t created as ‘high art,’ yet they utilized photographic reproduction – a technology deeply intertwined with material and industrial processes. What can a commercial card tell us about labor, leisure, and the construction of celebrity at the time? Consider the photographic process, the printing techniques, the conditions of labor, and how those processes impact our reception to this object now. Editor: It sounds like these cards were much more than just ads; they say something about social class. Curator: Exactly. The mass production of these cards made them accessible to a wide audience, blurring the lines between artistic consumption and everyday life. Were these cards displayed, collected, traded? What did owning them mean to the average consumer? Editor: So we should examine not only its creation but its consumption too? Thinking about it as more of a document that reflects both industrial capabilities of the era, but also on social hierarchies within a society. Curator: Precisely. Analyzing these mass-produced materials offers crucial insight into social norms and values and into industrial modes of cultural production. Editor: That’s a very insightful way to think about the social meaning behind what would have seemed like an insignificant card. Thank you.