Card Number 260, Frankie Kemble, from the Actors and Actresses series (N145-7) issued by Duke Sons & Co. to promote Duke Cigarettes 1880s

This card featuring Frankie Kemble was made by W. Duke, Sons & Co. in the United States as part of a series of promotional cards for Duke Cigarettes. It is a reminder of the way that the culture of celebrity was being packaged and sold in the late nineteenth century. Here, the visual codes of theatrical fame are deployed to sell a very different kind of commodity. The actress Frankie Kemble is shown in an elegant pose, but her image is also overlaid with the hard sell of capitalist advertising. It is also a reminder of the close relationship between art, commerce, and the emerging mass media of the time. The institution of celebrity helps to blur the lines between what is considered ‘high’ and ‘low’ culture. Historical research into the careers of actors and actresses, and the advertising strategies of tobacco companies, can help us to understand this complex relationship better. This art reminds us that meaning is always contingent on social and institutional contexts.