From the Actresses and Celebrities series (N60, Type 1) promoting Little Beauties Cigarettes for Allen & Ginter brand tobacco products 1887

Editor: This albumen print, a promotional card from Allen & Ginter’s "Actresses and Celebrities" series, circa 1887, features a formal portrait alongside an advertisement for "Little Beauties Cigarettes". I'm struck by the contrast between the high-society imagery and its explicit link to mass-produced tobacco. What do you see when you look at this piece? Curator: Immediately, I’m drawn to the material context. An albumen print – a photographic process that coats paper with egg white to create a smooth surface for the silver image. Consider the sheer scale of egg production involved in this industry, and its broader impact on class. Also, this wasn't high art but commercial ephemera meant to be collected and traded, essentially embedding this portrait within a vast network of consumerism. Editor: So, the very nature of the material highlights this tension? That's a fascinating perspective. It isn't just the image itself, but how it was made and distributed. Curator: Precisely! And let’s consider those “Little Beauties Cigarettes.” The marketing of tobacco products, especially to women, becomes a study in consumer manipulation and social aspirations. The materials themselves – tobacco, paper, ink, albumen – all tied to networks of labour and resources extracted at a global scale. Can we ignore that? Editor: No, definitely not! Thinking about all the layers of production makes me realize I was too focused on the surface image and less on how and why it came to be. Curator: This isn't about aesthetic pleasure. It's about power relations embedded in production, materiality, and consumption. Every card like this offers a snapshot of a capitalist system in its emergent phase. Editor: Wow, I see that so much more clearly now. It’s more than just a pretty portrait; it’s a little artifact loaded with economic and social meaning. Curator: Exactly! And those material clues invite us to unpack those complexities.