Card Number 92, Elsie Gerome, from the Actors and Actresses series (N145-2) issued by Duke Sons & Co. to promote Cross Cut Cigarettes 1880s

Curator: What strikes you first about this portrait card? Editor: It’s quaint, almost sepia-toned in feeling, even if it’s actually a printed work. It evokes a sense of old-world charm and a particular idealized beauty. Curator: Indeed. This is “Card Number 92, Elsie Gerome,” one of a series of actor and actress cards from the 1880s. They were issued by W. Duke, Sons & Co. to promote their Cross Cut Cigarettes. The Metropolitan Museum of Art houses this particular card. Editor: It’s fascinating to see these utilitarian objects elevated. The image itself, looks like a photomechanical print, likely produced in mass. Considering its origin as cigarette packaging, what sort of paper stock would be required? Were they striving for something sturdy that would last? Curator: The toned paper contributes to its antique feel, doesn't it? It is an element that highlights how mass production created cultural icons that served a capitalist pursuit. Notice how the composition frames Ms. Gerome's smiling gaze off to the side. There is a carefully posed spontaneity at play. Editor: Right, the pose feels less staged and more intimate. Also, the means of reproduction here flattens the image, offering details, yet creating a certain detachment, as though it is a reproduction of a reproduction. In its mass distribution, it's so accessible as to flatten aura. What does Elsie’s celebrity mean when packaged with something as everyday as tobacco? Curator: It democratizes celebrity but commodifies the individual simultaneously, making a trade card with artistic value. Its purpose was promotional. The drawing quality might be "fine art adjacent" to attract a consumer. Yet this act turns the image into a piece of cultural ephemera ripe for later collecting, and artistic inspection. Editor: Looking at this piece makes me ponder about labor practices during this era. And what were Elsie Gerome's fees, versus what would cigarette factory workers be earning? There are all sorts of tensions here. Curator: Well, in terms of formal value, it serves as a microcosm of a particular era and style of illustration. And the interplay of commerce, celebrity, and image, even in such a small piece, offers rich ground for analysis. Editor: Absolutely. The layered meanings are so impressive! Curator: Quite right. A tiny material artifact speaks volumes about art, labor, and commodity.