Aeronaut, from the Occupations for Women series (N166) for Old Judge and Dogs Head Cigarettes 1887

This lithograph was published in the United States, sometime between 1850 and 1950, by Goodwin & Company as a promotional item for cigarettes. It forms part of a series entitled “Occupations for Women.” The image shows a woman dressed in the colorful garb of what was then called an "aeronaut," the operator of a hot air balloon. The late nineteenth century was a moment of burgeoning opportunities for women to enter the public sphere, and this series of images speaks to that development. Yet, such commercial images also speak to anxieties around the changing social role of women, and should be understood in that context. The cultural historian relies on a wide variety of primary source documents—newspaper articles, advertisements, and other cultural ephemera—to arrive at an understanding of the complex social dynamics that shape artistic production.