Card 13, Papilio Turnus, from the Butterflies series (N183) issued by Wm. S. Kimball & Co. 1888

This small card was printed by the Wm. S. Kimball & Co., a 19th-century tobacco company, as part of a series of collectible cards featuring butterflies. These cards, popular in the late 1800s, were inserted into cigarette packages as a marketing strategy. But they also offered a glimpse into the cultural values of the time. Notice how the Papilio Turnus butterfly is presented here. Instead of a scientific depiction, it's romanticized, even feminized. The butterfly's wings are attached to a woman. This merging of nature and the feminine reflects the Victorian era's fascination with classifying and ordering the natural world, and how this intersected with ideas about womanhood. To understand this image better, we might look at natural history illustrations, advertisements, and even fashion plates from the period. These sources help us see how cultural institutions, even something as simple as a cigarette card, shape our understanding of nature and gender.