Card Number 568, Myra Ward, from the Actors and Actresses series (N145-7) issued by Duke Sons & Co. to promote Duke Cigarettes 1880s

Editor: So, this is "Card Number 568, Myra Ward," a photo print from the 1880s by W. Duke, Sons & Co., part of their Actors and Actresses series to promote Duke Cigarettes. It’s fascinating how something so commercial could end up in a museum. What's your take on it? Curator: Well, its very existence speaks to the convergence of consumerism and artistry in the late 19th century. Consider the material: a mass-produced card designed to be collected. The portrait, a photograph, elevates the actress Myra Ward, but simultaneously reduces her to a commodity. It is advertising using celebrity. Editor: Right, it’s definitely a form of advertising, so what is interesting from your perspective? Curator: Exactly. It’s not about aesthetic value as traditionally defined but rather its cultural value as an artifact of production and consumption. Look at the printing quality. Do you notice the process by which multiples would have been printed and distributed? It suggests an industrialized, highly organized system designed to infiltrate daily life, specifically through tobacco use. It suggests that cigarettes become something 'collectable' as consumers buy product after product seeking each one. What do you make of this from a production standpoint? Editor: That is interesting. It's easy to forget the scale of production behind these things. They must have made thousands upon thousands of these cards. That is an element of design I did not previously consider. Curator: Precisely. This card exemplifies the transition of image-making from a craft to an industrial process. Understanding the labour and the materials used to produce these cards helps us see it less as a simple portrait and more as an indicator of widespread social change. I find that understanding of materiality makes this image more interesting and layered.