Kate Nast, from the Actors and Actresses series (N45, Type 1) for Virginia Brights Cigarettes 1885 - 1891

Curator: This intriguing image, circa 1885-1891, is entitled "Kate Nast, from the Actors and Actresses series for Virginia Brights Cigarettes", by Allen & Ginter. What’s your initial reaction? Editor: It strikes me as both absurd and oddly glamorous. It has this tawny tint of a bygone era, yet the details like the oversized hat and the swords – are theatrical. But it's really just an ad for cigarettes, right? Curator: Exactly. Think about it—an albumen print, carefully staged and reproduced for mass consumption, tucked inside a cigarette pack. It's advertising, yes, but it's also a commentary on celebrity and desire in a rapidly industrializing world. I am quite charmed. Editor: Right, this would have been one of the earliest uses of a photograph of a figure used for consumer branding! And this miniature size meant the technology allowed it to be reproduced at a low cost to give them away to customers—increasing cigarette sales by tapping into the celebrity market. Curator: The choice of actress is deliberate, the allure of the stage combined with the addiction to nicotine. The costuming, the pose… it's all constructed to sell a fantasy. Though her gaze betrays an emotion between bewilderment and slight amusement, don't you think? Editor: I think that’s possible. Given the state of acting in that period she was likely being paid a pittance for this work for Virginia Brights Cigarettes, while those brands generated enormous revenues off of the sales. A lot of work went into creating that portrait too. There must have been entire rooms for printing those. Curator: The series it belongs to elevated performers to collectible objects. It asks you to reflect upon the human desire to collect images of fashionable stars in this form of commercial exchange. It reveals so much of how marketing worked a century and a half ago! Editor: Yes, that image as product really shows the birth of celebrity obsession, all intertwined with tobacco's cultural prevalence and labor practices of the time. Curator: Ultimately, I can't help but see this small photograph as both a relic of a lost era, but a poignant reminder that people’s desire for novelty and beauty are deeply connected to commodity fetishism. Editor: And what begins with printed cards advertising cigarettes now lives on through online collections, a sign of the times indeed.