Miss Melba, from the Actresses series (N245) issued by Kinney Brothers to promote Sweet Caporal Cigarettes 1890

This small card was made by the Kinney Brothers Tobacco Company, likely in the late 19th century, as part of a promotional series for Sweet Caporal Cigarettes. It’s a photograph, mass-produced and mounted on card stock. The image shows Miss Melba, an actress, posed in what seems to be a theatrical costume. The photographic process was still relatively new at the time, so the material itself would have had a certain allure, beyond its illustrative function. It represents a shift in production from unique hand-made artworks to something mechanically reproducible, and therefore more democratic. What makes this card particularly interesting is the collision of high culture and everyday commerce. The image of Miss Melba, a celebrity of her day, is used to entice consumers to purchase cigarettes, creating a mass-produced object that circulated widely, blurring the lines between art, advertising, and consumption. It's a reminder that materials and making are always embedded in a social and economic context.