Hawaii, from the Races of Mankind series (T181) issued by Abdul Cigarettes 1881

This small card, "Hawaii," was produced by Abdul Cigarettes as part of their “Races of Mankind” series. These cards were chromolithographed – a printing technique that uses multiple stone or metal plates to apply layers of different colored inks. Think of it as a highly industrialized version of hand-painted miniatures. The card stock itself, thin and mass-produced, speaks to the rise of consumer culture at the turn of the century, even as the image flattens and essentializes a human subject. The intense labor involved in the card’s manufacture – from the artists who created the initial image, to the factory workers operating the printing presses – stands in stark contrast to the disposable nature of the object itself. What does it mean to collect and classify humanity in this way? It is precisely in the convergence of material, process, and social context that we can begin to understand the complex meanings embedded within this seemingly simple card.