Card 584, Miss Taylor, from the Actors and Actresses series (N45, Type 2) for Virginia Brights Cigarettes 1885 - 1891

Editor: So, this is "Card 584, Miss Taylor, from the Actors and Actresses series," dating back to between 1885 and 1891 by Allen & Ginter. It’s a collotype print. It’s funny, it’s presented like an old-timey baseball card, but for actresses... she seems kind of stuck on a boat—almost as if she’s leaning on it, or trapped somehow! What leaps out at you when you see this piece? Curator: Ah, Miss Taylor! A portal into a very particular slice of 19th-century desire, wouldn't you say? She's performing a role, certainly – the naughty but nice sailor girl. I feel drawn in, yet also somewhat saddened. Do you sense the sea breeze is a bit stifling, like the conventions of the era are bearing down on her? And doesn’t it remind you that even dreams can be commodified, packaged for consumption with cigarettes? A puff of rebellion! Editor: Absolutely. The "Virginia Brights Cigarettes" blurb kind of dampens any rebellious or sensual feelings. It is meant to titillate and I guess sell a fantasy... kind of makes me feel like a peepshow is happening. The actress herself is a commercial prop, not an empowered artist. Curator: Precisely. And in this very small card, she becomes forever suspended between allure and commodity. Look at the pose. It has a story of her on land, as the base becomes her leaning position, and yet with water at her back. Almost as though it’s both at once… Editor: I get the simultaneous worlds! This tension almost didn’t jump out initially. And you're so right, the theatricality is packaged as approachable and even available through the product. Cigarettes—that is—with just a flash of forbidden-seeming skin! Curator: Right?! Though she appears approachable, it comes at a steep price for the woman. Now do you feel her a bit trapped with the rope behind? Perhaps tied? Almost held into place in her performance? Editor: Yes! And with that in mind I now find the staged setting more sad than inviting... and maybe this says more about the history of how women have been and still can be objectified! I didn’t catch that initially. Thank you for expanding my horizons! Curator: Anytime, that's what I enjoy most! And if our small, somewhat steamy chat makes you think of the position of women through our culture and media throughout time – even better.