Araguira, from the Song Birds of the World series (N23) for Allen & Ginter Cigarettes 1890

Curator: The immediacy of this small print really strikes me; it's like a fleeting memory caught in ink. Editor: Well, let me give you some context. This is "Araguira, from the Song Birds of the World series (N23) for Allen & Ginter Cigarettes," dating back to 1890. It’s currently held here at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. These prints were originally inserts in cigarette packs. Curator: Ah, a collectable. No wonder there’s a sense of serial imagery here. Still, the vivid red of the bird and the suggestion of movement capture a lot in a tiny space. The bird almost leaps off the card! Editor: Precisely, these cards played a role in popular education. By depicting exotic birds, Allen & Ginter exposed consumers to a world beyond their own, shaping their perceptions, in many ways, about nature and empire. Curator: I’m interested in this particular bird as a symbolic form. Flight and colour—the vibrant crimson contrasted with earthier wing tones—suggest a spiritual ascendance, perhaps, or a release from the everyday. Does this species, in particular, carry any regional mythic associations? Editor: Possibly. Although I think it's equally, if not more, important to view this through the lens of mass culture. Allen & Ginter used these images to build a brand identity, aligning cigarettes with sophistication, worldliness, and even naturalism, however packaged and consumed that naturalism became. The image here presents the bird as beautiful object for mass consumption as a marker of good taste, intertwined with consumer habits that actually were anything *but* nature friendly, if we remember smoking's impact. Curator: That commercial dimension doesn't negate the deeper resonance that a bird-in-flight image carries, the emotional chord it strikes within us, even now. The upward, striving dynamic remains evocative, regardless of original intent. The collective unconscious speaks in those wings! Editor: Of course, I agree that such potent and persuasive imagery creates long-term symbolic values. Looking at this print now reveals not only Victorian habits of consumption but, moreover, the cultural power of these small, yet deeply invested and evocative images. Curator: Yes, I concur entirely! These kinds of considerations enrich our appreciation so.