Card Number 372, Carrie Perkens, from the Actors and Actresses series (N145-5) issued by Duke Sons & Co. to promote Cameo Cigarettes 1880s

Curator: It’s evocative, isn’t it? I'm drawn to the texture created in this period print, titled "Card Number 372, Carrie Perkens, from the Actors and Actresses series (N145-5) issued by Duke Sons & Co. to promote Cameo Cigarettes," produced in the 1880s. Editor: It feels…theatrical. There’s a definite sense of staged drama, like a pause mid-performance captured on this little rectangle. Curator: Precisely. The cigarette cards often featured performers. The pose and costume tap into a common symbolic language, linking performers to mythic or allegorical characters, inviting the viewer to associate glamour and drama. Notice how the cigarette company positions its product next to cultural ideals. Editor: The high contrast certainly throws the pose and silhouette into sharp relief. I wonder about the choice of medium? Photography reproduced as a print offers a fascinating layering of techniques. It feels calculated—every line and shade contributing to this construction of celebrity and commodity. Curator: That contrast also mimics the performance. Consider how light and shadow play into notions of persona, how appearances and facades reveal cultural fixations. It hints at ideas around idealized beauty—but also speaks to what celebrity once was in America and to a certain amount of fame becoming accessible with new formats. Editor: I suppose the material fragility adds another layer. Something mass-produced that could be discarded easily after opening the cigarette pack—yet somehow, it's survived, carrying with it echoes of its era. What was supposed to be temporary became enduring, transformed into a relic to better know society. Curator: That is a brilliant point. We imbue objects with meaning; cultural memory persists, shaped by seemingly ephemeral things. This card’s survival grants the depicted figure and a specific brand name unexpected visibility. The symbol system continues evolving. Editor: The scale is unexpectedly intimate too. Held in the hand, exchanged between individuals...its consumption very different from our large-format contemporary screens and broadcasts. It is all about the composition and line. Curator: Yes, these cards circulated through culture with specific intentions. They reflect their culture as they reinforce cultural ideals. Editor: I like the sense of layering, too. Different kinds of spectators looking at these tiny images.