Pansy: Thoughtfulness, from the series Floral Beauties and Language of Flowers (N75) for Duke brand cigarettes 1892

This small lithograph was produced by the American Tobacco Company as a promotional item inserted into packs of Duke brand cigarettes. The mass production of such images relied on industrial printing processes, where designs were transferred onto lithographic stones or metal plates, allowing for numerous identical copies to be made quickly and cheaply. Here, the point of production influences the work's appearance, as it is characterized by fine dot-like patterns, which come from the automated printing processes. This image would have been created by skilled laborers working in factories, following precise instructions to achieve the desired aesthetic. This printmaking process involved a division of labor, where different workers would specialize in separate stages of production, such as preparing the printing plates, operating the printing presses, and cutting the final product. Considering this image as craft helps us to acknowledge the labor involved in its creation, and to situate it within broader histories of visual culture beyond the traditional confines of fine art.