Great Blue Heron, from the Game Birds series (N40) for Allen & Ginter Cigarettes 1888 - 1890

Curator: Well, what do you make of this, an advertising card for Allen & Ginter cigarettes from somewhere between 1888 and 1890? It's part of their "Game Birds" series and features a Great Blue Heron. Editor: Intriguing! It feels almost…split. The top half is graceful, a tranquil study of the heron in its habitat. Below, though, there’s a hunter with his rifle, turning that peaceful scene into something… else. The commercial context clashes with what feels like genuine artistic observation. Curator: That split is crucial. Cigarette cards like these were wildly popular. On the one hand, they gave brands a collectible edge, a bit of ephemeral art. On the other, they transmitted cultural values. Birds were seen as emblems of freedom and nature. But there’s this subtext… Editor: The hunter reminds us that man dominates nature, even aestheticizes the violence, tucking it beneath an idyllic veneer. What is he even shooting at on what seems like a peaceful getaway? Curator: It is complex; it captures the Victorian fascination with the natural world coupled with its exploitation. It is watercolor and colored pencil on paper. What’s fascinating to me is how, like other symbolic avians like the raven or the dove, herons, and especially the great blue heron carry considerable symbolism with them through different eras, and in varied global locations. We can consider it in art as a good omen; in others as patience, or even being in the middle: a connector of worlds. And while Ginter & Allen use them to essentially endorse tobacco products… the symbol transcends all this. Editor: Totally! Thinking about the cigarette connection feels a little perverse. Almost as if the very act of admiring nature has been stained. Does it also work to tame fears, anxieties around encroaching on the wilderness, or perhaps of overstepping nature by partaking of an accessible print? Curator: Exactly! And you've really honed in on that push and pull that made these cards, well, more than just marketing trinkets. Editor: Indeed, so much crammed into one little card! I will never be able to look at an antique cigarette advertisement card the same way again, that's for sure.