Newport, from the Fancy Bathers series (N187) issued by Wm. S. Kimball & Co. 1889

Editor: Here we have “Newport, from the Fancy Bathers series,” dating to 1889, by William S. Kimball & Co. It’s a color print and drawing. It strikes me as satirical, poking fun at leisure and fashion of the time. What’s your perspective on this piece? Curator: Looking at the material and its means of production is key. This wasn’t designed as high art; it's a trade card, meant to be given away with tobacco products. The caricature highlights changing attitudes towards leisure and the commodification of experiences like going to the beach. Note how her striped bathing costume, while fashionable, also subtly evokes factory worker uniforms. Do you think that’s accidental? Editor: That's fascinating, I hadn’t considered that. I guess I was viewing it more at face value, seeing a commentary on leisure, not labor. The mass-produced nature of this little card, distributed to boost tobacco sales, does bring in questions of mass culture and accessibility, doesn't it? Curator: Precisely! The image is both about leisure and an item circulating *within* a burgeoning leisure and consumer culture. What does it tell us about who could access Newport, or who the Kimball company thought *used* tobacco? Consider the distribution channels, the source of materials, and the laborers involved in printing these cards. Editor: That makes me rethink its intent and the audience it was aimed at. It shows the rise of consumer culture intertwined with social status in late 19th-century America, but it also implicates our complicity through continued consumption, in this case tobacco. Curator: Indeed. It encourages us to reflect on the material conditions that enabled leisure for some, while highlighting the labor required to produce even these small, seemingly trivial items. A very powerful thing to consider.