Card 16, Vanessa Io, from the Butterflies series (N183) issued by Wm. S. Kimball & Co. 1888

This is a card from the Butterflies series, printed by the Wm. S. Kimball & Co., most likely by lithography. The cards were printed using industrial processes, and were distributed in cigarette packs. The imagery romanticizes the butterfly as a symbol of femininity. The figure in the image merges woman and insect, with actual butterfly wings attached to her back. The result is meant to be both idealized and alluring. The process by which the card was printed is key to understanding it. Lithography allowed for mass production, turning images into cheap, widely available items. This technique facilitated the rapid circulation of images and ideas, shaping popular taste and consumer culture. The amount of work required to produce these cards would have been considerable, involving a large number of workers and complex machinery. These ephemeral cards are now valuable collectors’ items. But we must consider the means by which they came into being. The history of art is also the history of production.