Card Number 372, Minnie Farren, from the Actors and Actresses series (N145-3) issued by Duke Sons & Co. to promote Cross Cut Cigarettes 1880s

Curator: Minnie Farren! She looks like she's about to tell you a secret while selling you cigarettes. It's…unexpectedly charming. Editor: Let's unpack that charm. What you're responding to is a meticulously constructed image embedded within the power dynamics of late 19th-century capitalism. This card, dating from the 1880s, was part of a series issued by W. Duke, Sons & Co. to promote Cross Cut Cigarettes. The full title is "Card Number 372, Minnie Farren, from the Actors and Actresses series." Curator: "Actors and Actresses"—so it's a trading card! I pictured it much larger for some reason. This explains so much—a whole series, each one a tiny performance. So Minnie Farren wasn’t just selling cigarettes, she was selling… celebrity. Editor: Precisely. She was a celebrated stage actress, and her image, reproduced en masse, became a collectible item, intertwining celebrity culture with consumerism. The card performs a function—advertising—but it also embodies larger cultural anxieties and aspirations. Curator: Anxieties? She seems pretty confident to me. And it feels like more than just advertising, though it certainly is that too. I get this almost subversive, performative wink from her… and I find myself smiling, like I’m in on the joke. Editor: It's interesting you perceive it as a "wink." Her pose, while seemingly flirtatious, is carefully managed. Consider the male gaze—how women were marketed through objectification. Yet the gaze isn't simple: there's potential for agency, negotiation. By embracing performativity and engaging with fame on her own terms, did Farren challenge conventional norms? Did her "wink" carry multiple interpretations, depending on who was holding the card? And how does that reflection work as advertisement today? Curator: Ah, yes, she almost tricks me into imagining my own story about it, her sly wit as she climbs out the scenery, just to hawk the cigarettes, but then the image feels different. Less confident and carefree than just canny and exploited. Hmm. Editor: The card invites those layered readings, and maybe that’s its power and danger. A simple tobacco card becomes a mirror reflecting societal power dynamics, artistic representation, and consumerism. Thank you for looking deeper and adding a critical element to the tour. Curator: The pleasure's all mine, a glimpse into an intriguing picture within a picture that reminds me of many struggles which continue on today.