Card Number 221, Carrie Coote, from the Actors and Actresses series (N145-2) issued by Duke Sons & Co. to promote Cross Cut Cigarettes 1880s

Card Number 221, featuring Carrie Coote, was created by W. Duke, Sons & Co. around the turn of the century as an advertising premium. Printed on thin card stock, the sepia-toned image was part of a larger series intended to promote Cross Cut Cigarettes. What is most striking about this object is its role in the burgeoning consumer culture of the late 19th century. It is not, strictly speaking, a work of art; it’s a collectible, churned out in enormous quantities. But look closer, and you'll see that it also embodies an intriguing set of social relationships. The actress, Carrie Coote, the laborers who processed tobacco and printed the cards, and the consumers targeted by the advertisement – all are essential to the card’s existence. This mass production, with its division of labor, suggests a new kind of art, one deeply embedded in the processes of industrial capitalism. By focusing on such objects, we can rethink the boundary between commercial ephemera and more traditional definitions of art.