Miss L'Hery, from the Actresses series (N246), Type 1, issued by Kinney Brothers to promote Sporting Extra Cigarettes 1888 - 1892

This photograph of Miss L’Hery was produced by the Kinney Brothers Tobacco Company as a promotional item for their Sporting Extra Cigarettes. Made in the late 19th century, this belongs to a wider cultural phenomenon: the rise of celebrity endorsements. Actresses, like Miss L’Hery, gained notoriety through popular theater and were among the first celebrities in modern America. The industrial revolution allowed for mass production, and the rise of advertising created a market for celebrity images to be circulated on products like these. It shows how the burgeoning entertainment industry, with its cult of personality, intertwined with the expanding consumer market. Understanding the social context behind these images requires us to consider questions such as: who was Miss L’Hery? What was her status as an actress? How were women represented at the time? The answers lie in archives of theatrical history, advertising ephemera, and broader studies of celebrity culture.