A Short History of General John B. Hood, from the Histories of Generals series (N114) issued by W. Duke, Sons & Co. to promote Honest Long Cut Smoking and Chewing Tobacco 1888

W. Duke, Sons & Co. produced this commercial lithograph tobacco card around the turn of the century. Its divided pictorial field, organized into distinct compartments, feels strikingly modern in its construction. The card’s overall design emphasizes fragmentation, which becomes a core theme. Note how the portrait of General Hood is cropped. The image is not given in its entirety. The card’s function as advertisement employs a strategy similar to the visual disjunction of Cubism, destabilizing fixed meanings. This strategy emphasizes surface and form, disrupting traditional representation. The juxtaposition of General Hood's portrait alongside tobacco advertisements creates a jarring semiotic interplay. This challenges the romanticized image of historical figures. Ultimately, this tobacco card shows how commercial art can borrow from and prefigure avant-garde strategies, revealing how meaning can be intentionally destabilized. It encourages us to rethink established values in representation.