Concord Grapes, from the Fruits series (N12) for Allen & Ginter Cigarettes Brands 1891

This is "Concord Grapes", a chromolithograph card created by Allen & Ginter, though the date of its creation is unknown. These cards were originally inserts in cigarette packs, part of a late 19th-century marketing strategy. The image depicts a fair-skinned, youthful woman holding concord grapes. Her gaze is cast downward towards the fruit. She has been idealized; her features are soft and delicate. In the 19th century, the representation of women in advertising often revolved around notions of purity and domesticity, reflecting the era's societal expectations. This idealized presentation of femininity would have appealed to consumers. The image promotes not just a product, but a lifestyle and an ideal. What does it mean to consume images that reproduce certain types of people and not others? What kind of desires were projected onto these images, and what anxieties did they displace?