Viola Randell, from the Actors and Actresses series (N171) for Old Judge Cigarettes 1886 - 1890

Curator: This small card, from somewhere between 1886 and 1890, is part of the "Actors and Actresses" series (N171) made for Old Judge Cigarettes. It depicts Viola Randell, an actress of the time, in profile. Editor: She appears almost like a classical cameo, but flattened and subdued. The light is soft, diffused, which softens the edges, it lends an almost ethereal quality to her profile, but the backdrop of tobacco pushes against that idealization. Curator: Indeed. Tobacco cards were hugely popular as advertising, essentially a way to collect celebrity portraits. The albumen print gives it a sepia tone, lending it an antique, nostalgic feel. Editor: These objects, seemingly insignificant, provide a critical glimpse into late 19th century cultural values. To what extent did commercial images such as these contribute to creating and maintaining the beauty standards of that era? She is quite fair. Curator: In these portraits, we see a distillation of certain virtues—beauty, success, public admiration, packaged to sell not only a product but a lifestyle, perhaps. But these are potent images in part because they point toward something profound; they echo a very old theme of memento mori in their function. The portrait captures Randell in a moment of life, and now it exists in historical time. Editor: I see these kinds of collectibles and think about the tension between consumption, celebrity, and even the burgeoning commodification of female beauty. The fact that her image is literally embedded in something that is now so deeply understood as a toxin complicates that beauty. And there's also the context of vaudeville and performance, so tightly entwined with issues of gender and labor. Curator: The photograph also gives Viola a sort of cultural permanence – an immortalization of a temporal being in a frozen and carefully maintained pose. As we perceive this pose across historical time, our relationship with what constitutes beauty or virtue remains an interesting subject of meditation. Editor: Ultimately, seeing this reminds us that images, no matter how small or seemingly trivial, participate in larger narratives of power, visibility, and cultural memory. Curator: Yes, and like all images, it echoes and anticipates across time. Editor: Leaving us with much to consider about what is absent from this image, as well as what it shows.