Miss Georgie Blake, from the Actors and Actresses series (N45, Type 1) for Virginia Brights Cigarettes 1885 - 1891

This small card, part of the Actors and Actresses series by Allen & Ginter, was made to promote Virginia Brights Cigarettes. Think about what it meant to put images of performers on products like cigarettes in the late 19th century. In the United States, the rise of mass media created a new kind of celebrity culture. The image of stage actors was particularly captivating and they gained unprecedented social visibility. They became associated with changing attitudes towards gender roles. Here, Miss Georgie Blake is depicted in revealing attire. The pose and costume can be seen as either transgressing or reinforcing conventional norms of female representation. Was it empowering or exploitative to place women like Georgie Blake on these cards? To answer this question, we need to look at the social history of tobacco advertising and the biographies of individual performers. Doing so will help us understand the complex interplay of commerce, representation, and identity in the Gilded Age.