Miss Harold, from the Actors and Actresses series (N145-8) issued by Duke Sons & Co. to promote Duke Cigarettes 1890 - 1895

This is "Miss Harold," a promotional card made by W. Duke, Sons & Co. around the turn of the 20th century to advertise Duke Cigarettes. In an era of burgeoning consumer culture, the tobacco company included these cards in cigarette packs as a marketing strategy. The image shows Miss Harold in profile, shoulders bare, gazing demurely off to the side. Her hair is piled high, embodying conventional standards of feminine beauty at the time. These cards, while seemingly innocuous, offer a window into the commodification of femininity and celebrity culture. Actresses like Miss Harold became objects of mass consumption. The women featured in the series were often objectified, reduced to mere images to be collected and traded, their identities flattened into a single, marketable persona. The image also reflects the limited roles available to women in the public sphere. It's poignant to consider the emotional lives of these women, whose images were so widely circulated, and to wonder about the stories behind their carefully constructed public images.