"Ah, go hit a feller yer size!," from the Terrors of America set (N136) issued by Duke Sons & Co. to promote Honest Long Cut Tobacco 1888 - 1889

Curator: Here we have a print titled “Ah, go hit a feller yer size!” created by W. Duke, Sons & Co. around 1888, as part of their “Terrors of America” series. It’s currently held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Editor: The colors are kind of muted and odd, yet the overall feeling is definitely rambunctious. These two boys caught in some sort of kerfuffle look really full of life. The way the tilted perspective fights with the decorative border kind of gives it a woozy effect, like being in a real childhood scuffle. Curator: It's fascinating how they used caricature within a mass-produced collectible card intended for promotion. These cards were inserted into packages of Honest Long Cut Tobacco, acting as both advertisement and a little burst of visual culture accessible to many. Editor: Burst is right. Check out the raw emotions—you’ve got defiance versus what looks like injured pride all playing out there. The littler fella's got fire in his eyes. Curator: The subject matter provides insight into the era's social dynamics and popular entertainments. Note the contrast between the finer dress of one child versus the relative bare feet and overalls of the other. Editor: Barefoot kids were kind of my whole jam back in the day. Seeing the image this way makes me want to capture that youthful recklessness—maybe work it into a series of portraits, but with a bit of irony laced in… Curator: The use of printed cards transformed how images were distributed, creating early forms of fan culture and consumption where art intersected with everyday commercial exchange. This piece asks: How do we define art, and what are its functions in different cultural spheres? Editor: That makes me think how easily these bits of fleeting material end up revealing long-lost stories. This makes me want to dig through old photographs and ephemera just to keep that impulse alive.