A Short History of General Joseph Eggleston Johnston, from the Histories of Generals series of booklets (N78) for Duke brand cigarettes 1888

This chromolithograph of General Joseph Eggleston Johnston comes from a series of collectible cards produced by W. Duke & Sons around 1890 to promote their Duke brand cigarettes. The image is interesting for what it tells us about the social and cultural conditions that shaped the memory of the American Civil War. Johnston was a General in the Confederate Army, so this card, made a quarter of a century after the end of the war, suggests that the cultural memory of the confederacy was still very much alive in some parts of the country. The commercial logic is clear: Duke wanted to sell cigarettes to as many people as possible and in some markets, celebrating the Confederacy was good for business. Understanding images like this requires that we look closely at the history of the institutions in which they were made, as well as the visual codes through which they create meaning.