Annie Somerville, from the Actors and Actresses series (N171) for Old Judge Cigarettes 1886 - 1890

Editor: This is “Annie Somerville, from the Actors and Actresses series (N171) for Old Judge Cigarettes,” dating from 1886 to 1890. It's a small printed card, now held at the Met. What strikes me most is the sheer disposability of it; it was designed to be included with a pack of cigarettes! What do you make of it? Curator: It's fascinating how something so seemingly ephemeral as a cigarette card intersects with notions of celebrity, consumption, and labor. Think about the materials: the paper, the ink, the photographic process used to create the image. These all represent industries, jobs, and systems of production. Editor: So, the act of producing and distributing these cards involved a lot of people! Curator: Exactly. And consider the target audience. Who were the consumers of Old Judge Cigarettes, and what did these images of actors and actresses signify to them? Were they considered 'high art'? Certainly, this challenges our assumptions about value. The making of photographs transformed in mass production prints to be placed within a consumable good transforms our thinking. How does that strike you? Editor: It makes me consider how celebrity culture was being commodified even back then. It's almost a precursor to social media endorsements. The idea of putting art—or images of artists—within reach of the masses is really compelling. Curator: Precisely. This card reveals a complex network of labor, materiality, and consumer culture, blurring the lines between fine art, advertising, and everyday life. The 'work' and cost, as we see it now, would be in collecting and keeping such ephemera, therefore ascribing value. Editor: That’s given me a whole new perspective on something I initially just saw as a vintage advertisement! I never would have considered its impact. Curator: And it highlights how the most ordinary objects can reveal extraordinary insights into our cultural history.