Acacia: Chaste Love, from the series Floral Beauties and Language of Flowers (N75) for Duke brand cigarettes 1892

This chromolithograph was made by the American Tobacco Company as an advertising card for Duke cigarettes. Produced in the late 19th century, this card is part of a series that connects floral imagery with sentimental concepts. Here, the acacia flower represents “chaste love,” an idea reinforced by the image of a young woman whose coy gaze is framed by delicate blossoms. These cards were collected and traded, feeding a market for sentimental images that served to reinforce idealized notions of femininity and morality. The image is a reminder of the power of commercial enterprises to shape social values. Studying the popular visual culture of the past through ephemera like this helps us to understand how institutions like the American Tobacco Company participated in circulating and normalizing particular ideas about gender, class, and morality.