Card Number 392, Maggie Claire, from the Actors and Actresses series (N145-7) issued by Duke Sons & Co. to promote Duke Cigarettes 1880s

This is Card Number 392, Maggie Claire, an advertising card made by W. Duke, Sons & Co. to promote Duke Cigarettes. It's a humble piece of paper, just a couple of inches across, printed with an image of an actress of the day. The image itself is fascinating, because it shows the close relationship between consumerism, entertainment, and the labor of performers. The card is not so different from ones that might promote a brand today. Mass production of these cards went hand-in-hand with the manufacturing of cigarettes on an industrial scale. The very disposability of these cards is part of the point. Cigarettes were inexpensive and sold in enormous quantities, which meant that the promotional cards had to be equally cheap to make. They were meant to be collected, traded, even discarded. So, next time you light up, consider the relationship between art, advertising, and the wider social context of labor and consumption, which is far more profound than we often recognize.