A Short History of General John Brown Gordon, from the Histories of Generals series of booklets (N78) for Duke brand cigarettes 1888

This color lithograph of General John Brown Gordon was created around the turn of the century, by W. Duke, Sons & Co., as part of a series of promotional cigarette cards. These cards, very popular at the time, offer glimpses into the cultural values and historical narratives that were being circulated and consumed. Here, we see a portrait of General Gordon, a figure of the Confederacy, idealized in a pocket-sized format designed to fit inside a cigarette pack. What does it mean to commodify history, to package it for easy consumption alongside a known carcinogen? These cards tell a story of a South that sought to normalize its past, in a post-Reconstruction America. They attempted to rewrite the narrative of the Civil War. It is a soft focus and subtle reminder of the way images shape our collective memory.