Card 12, Vanessa Urticae, from the Butterflies series (N183) issued by Wm. S. Kimball & Co. 1888

Curator: Isn't this whimsical? A lady, with the wings of a butterfly… Editor: Exactly! What grabs me first is its sweetness. It’s like looking into a forgotten garden where fantasies bloom. The coloring has that kind of faded innocence, don't you think? Curator: You've hit it perfectly. What we're looking at is “Card 12, Vanessa Urticae, from the Butterflies series” issued around 1888 by Wm. S. Kimball & Co. You know, those cards they used to put in cigarette packs... this one can be found at the Met. Editor: A butterfly cigarette card… what a juxtaposition! Like finding a delicate poem tucked inside a battle manual! Talk about trading glamour for vice, or the other way around. It does echo an idealized femininity that was prominent then. Curator: Well, that’s the brilliant contrast. The Vanessa Urticae butterfly, or Small Tortoiseshell, transforms into a whimsical, almost fantastical, image of womanhood. And what's fascinating, to me at least, is how that ideal relates to consumer culture and the rise of mass-produced images. The color and technique suggests an impressionistic painting…it does recall those Japanese Ukiyo-e prints that were fashionable. It makes you wonder what Kimball and Company wanted people to dream about! Editor: Dreams, commodities, beauty... they understood their consumers. Though slightly unsettling now! The butterflies add an odd sense of power, like this woman is just about to flit away and is completely free. It seems the artist understood, instinctively, that people yearned for a release from daily tedium...even if the escape only lasts as long as it takes to finish a cigarette. Curator: Indeed, something fluttery and strange about its simple concept of transforming women and butterflies to art. Editor: So, a small, fragile butterfly carries a large weight on their back, perhaps symbolizing femininity back then and to the very different understanding of now? Curator: A little card filled with dreams and anxieties of a bygone era…it makes you appreciate how things change. Editor: Exactly! Maybe these tobacco cards aren't that bad; these cards, despite their origins, open conversations for generations to come.