Leona Dare, from the Actresses series (N203) issued by Wm. S. Kimball & Co. 1889

This lithograph of Leona Dare, from the Actresses series, was issued by the Wm. S. Kimball & Co. Consider the tambourine held aloft. In antiquity, this instrument was not merely for music; it was a symbol, linked to ecstatic rites of Cybele and Dionysus, gods of fertility, liberation, and the intoxicating power of nature. Notice how this pose mirrors images of maenads – the female followers of Dionysus, who, in their frenzied dances, would raise such instruments to invoke divine ecstasy. Dare's stance atop a pedestal evokes a statue, transforming a mortal woman into an idealized form, a simulacrum of the divine. Here, the image taps into a deep-seated desire to elevate the human form, echoing classical sculptures of goddesses. But here, it is not for worship, but for admiration. This conflation of sacred and secular, divine and human, speaks to our complex relationship with beauty, desire, and the enduring power of images. It reminds us that symbols are never static, always evolving, and that even in the ephemeral form of a cigarette card, echoes of ancient rituals and primal urges persist.