Vesta Victoria, from the Actresses series (N245) issued by Kinney Brothers to promote Sweet Caporal Cigarettes 1890

Curator: Ah, the scent of aged paper and faded ink. There's something truly evocative about these old photographs, isn't there? Editor: Totally, this card is sweet—gives off an antique, dream-like vibe. All soft focus and sepia tones; it's like peeking into a simpler time, y’know? Curator: Precisely. What we have here is a print from the “Actresses” series (N245) dating back to 1890, created by the Kinney Brothers Tobacco Company. It was an advertising giveaway for Sweet Caporal Cigarettes. The subject is Vesta Victoria, a popular music hall performer of the era. It now resides at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Editor: A cigarette ad, huh? You wouldn’t think smoking and portraiture would be pals, but Vesta and her pup are kinda sellin' it. The soft lighting kinda makes the dog look like a little gargoyle, though, doesn’t it? Curator: One could say the soft focus flirts with the aesthetic principles of Japonisme—a nod to Eastern ideals that influenced artistic photography at the time. This movement celebrated asymmetry and the beauty of the everyday. What's striking is the agency these cigarette cards, which typically featured actors, athletes, or prominent public figures, conferred upon the subjects depicted. Editor: You think the card format itself changes the viewing experience, right? This little gal was probably stuck in people's pockets or pinned to walls – that casual proximity does shift your connection to the image. Curator: It absolutely does. Circulating such images fostered the construction and popularization of celebrity. What these photographs did for performers in popular theatrical circuits cannot be understated. The intersection between visual culture, commodification, and nascent performance industries. Editor: And Victoria herself gets to smolder in sepia for posterity’s sake, forever holding that fluffy little gremlin. Who wouldn’t want a souvenir of that? It kind of makes me want to write a whole scene with these two as the main characters! Curator: These cigarette cards provide such rich windows into fin-de-siecle cultural values and industrial developments, especially as they relate to gender and celebrity. They become vehicles for understanding broader socioeconomic processes during this period. Editor: Makes me appreciate the stories embedded in these artifacts. Little doorways to other people's worlds and weird obsessions. Thanks for unpacking it, always a fun time looking at things sideways. Curator: Indeed. Hopefully we have offered listeners a lens into the lives of the subject, those who made these commercial prints, and their cultural context.