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

Editor: So, here we have an albumen print dating from around 1886 to 1890, from Goodwin & Company's "Actors and Actresses" series, featuring a portrait of Eleanor Lane. It’s surprisingly intimate for something that was basically cigarette packaging. What captures your eye most when you look at it? Curator: The gaze. She's staring right through us, isn't she? A confident, almost challenging expression. You have to wonder, what was it like to be Eleanor Lane, an actress in that era, knowing this image would be mass-produced, consumed, and then discarded like a spent cigarette? The photograph romanticizes, yes, yet simultaneously commodifies her image. Isn't it peculiar how objects can embody nostalgia and disposable consumerism, all in a single glance? Editor: It is! I guess it makes me think about image rights, even back then, but also…her dress! It looks so constricting. Curator: Ah, the gilded cage of fashion! But also the uniform of her profession, a signal of her status. It's this interesting dance between imprisonment and empowerment, isn't it? Did she have a say in how she was portrayed? Or was she just another element in the theater of advertising, playing a part for Goodwin & Company's audience? Perhaps she saw this image as an advertisement for her career. The photograph could become her business card in a sense. What’s so fascinating is how even within the tight confines of societal expectations, personalities manage to shine through. Don't you think? Editor: Definitely! Thinking about it that way, I see her confidence more clearly. This tiny card is packed with so many complex ideas. Curator: Exactly! It's a pocket-sized paradox, really, that holds up a mirror to both the past and the present. What have we really learned here today, then? That maybe these actors deserve as much limelight now as when they starred on these cards?