Coursing, from the Games and Sports series (N165) for Old Judge Cigarettes 1889

This chromolithograph promoting Old Judge Cigarettes was made in the United States, sometime between 1887 and 1890. Part of a series on games and sports, it depicts "coursing," a pursuit of hares by greyhounds. Consider the composition. The vignette places a figure in formal attire against a backdrop of genteel leisure activities. The text is legible and the images clear, but what are the politics of representing leisure in this way? Who is invited to partake? Who is excluded? In the late 19th century, the rise of consumer culture transformed social relations. But such transformations were contested and uneven. Cigarette cards like these sought to democratize culture through mass production, but simultaneously encoded older class distinctions. A full understanding requires research into the history of advertising, class, and leisure. Only then can we understand how this everyday image reflected and shaped its time.