Card 22, Catogala Fraxini, from the Butterflies series (N183) issued by Wm. S. Kimball & Co. 1888

This small chromolithograph card was made by the Wm. S. Kimball & Company. Part of a series, it combines images of women with those of butterflies, a popular motif in the decorative arts. Such cards were common in the late 19th century United States, particularly as marketing tools. Kimball was a cigarette manufacturer, and cards like this would have been included in cigarette packs. The cards served multiple functions. They protected the cigarettes, they encouraged brand loyalty through the collection of entire sets, and they also visually associated smoking with beauty and sophistication. At the time, advertising was an unregulated, emerging field. Manufacturers deployed images of women to sell products to both male and female consumers, popularizing an ideal of feminine beauty. This card offers a glimpse into the commercial forces and the institutional practices that shaped visual culture in the Gilded Age. Historians of American consumer culture have cataloged thousands of these cards, uncovering a wealth of information about the social and economic history of the era.