Wilhelm Willigerod, from the Sea Captains series (N127) issued by Duke Sons & Co. to promote Honest Long Cut Tobacco 1887

Editor: This is Wilhelm Willigerod, from the Sea Captains series by W. Duke, Sons & Co., dating back to 1887. It's a drawing or print, seemingly created to promote "Honest Long Cut Tobacco". I find it humorous – almost a caricature, despite the portrait style. What historical context can you provide for a piece like this? Curator: These tobacco cards were hugely popular at the time. Think of them as miniature billboards slipped into cigarette or tobacco packs. This one offers a romantic, albeit exaggerated, vision of maritime authority through its depiction of Captain Willigerod. What is interesting is how the card's function shapes its content. It presents an ideal type for consumption. Editor: Ideal in what sense? The heroic captain? Curator: Partly. More precisely, this imagery, which evokes European stability and industriousness, aimed to transfer those qualities to the brand. Images like this one from Duke helped weave complex associations that smoking this product was about achieving stability and status during a period of rapid American industrialisation. So, while seemingly straightforward, such imagery reinforces hierarchies within a burgeoning consumer culture. How do you think these tactics resonate today? Editor: It’s fascinating to consider how product advertisements often latch onto idealized images and try to associate them with a brand's promise of something. I never considered the power dynamics at play with images from this time! Curator: Exactly! And seeing this particular card reveals a whole web of social and economic aspirations embedded within what looks, at first glance, like just a simple tobacco advertisement.