From the Actors and Actresses series (N45, Type 5) for Virginia Brights Cigarettes 1885 - 1891

Curator: This is one in a series of collectible cards from Allen & Ginter between 1885 and 1891. These cards were inserts in packs of Virginia Brights Cigarettes, featuring actresses and notable personalities of the time. It's an albumen print, giving it that warm, sepia tone. Editor: My first thought is "Regal"—it's hard to miss the crown she's wearing. The detail is quite remarkable, even though it's just a small card. I immediately want to know who she is portraying, what character is this from? Curator: Absolutely. It represents an interesting intersection of celebrity culture, consumerism, and the male gaze of the late 19th century. These actresses became commodities, traded and collected alongside cigarettes, solidifying their images as desirable figures, but largely divorced from their actual performances. These women were public figures but hardly wielded any power in this overwhelmingly male sphere. Editor: That crown does seem to signal something beyond just fame. Crowns carry enormous weight, signifying power, divinity, and legitimacy. Even in this small image, the artist understands that impact. She gazes softly to her right, and one can't help but think of all the portraits of Queen Elizabeth with this same angle of gaze that suggests so much inexpressible weight on her shoulders. The image's sepia tones lend it the air of timelessness or continuity that might also add a deeper layer of significance, despite its advertisement usage. Curator: The accessibility is fascinating here—tobacco products made images of prominent women more accessible than ever, effectively democratizing celebrity culture, even while objectifying those women. These trading cards reflect the expansion of mass media and consumerism during the Gilded Age. How does the context of commodity change the original symbolic charge in circulation and use? Editor: I agree! Perhaps the company that produced this image was capitalizing on already understood iconography related to femininity, and beauty as something unattainable that the cigarette smoker could aspire to access. It's almost like it borrows from the symbolism, but detaches it, becoming another cog in this much bigger cultural machine that has evolved in modernity. It makes you question whether something like an albumen print of this woman with this imagery in this cultural climate strips away the meaning from her identity or empowers the person to ascend above what may be the limited agency that the role gave her in a male sphere. Curator: Definitely. Seeing it through a contemporary lens, we can examine its problematic aspects and power dynamics. It’s a good way to consider who held and still holds the power in these situations. Editor: These ephemeral items offer unexpected portals into our past, revealing both the timelessness of our image repertoire and the contextual factors shaping how that memory is encoded, accessed, and commodified.