Card Number 646, Minnie Thorp, from the Actors and Actresses series (N145-3) issued by Duke Sons & Co. to promote Cross Cut Cigarettes 1880s

Curator: What a striking image. This is a card from the 1880s, specifically "Card Number 646, Minnie Thorp," part of the "Actors and Actresses" series produced by Duke Sons & Co. as advertisement for Cross Cut Cigarettes. It's an albumen print, so photography combined with printmaking. Editor: My first thought? It's... unsettlingly theatrical. The combination of the staged backdrop, her rather bold costume, and the advertising text crammed onto one tiny rectangle screams commodification of feminine personas, especially regarding their bodies. Curator: Precisely. It's fascinating to consider the materiality of these cards, though. Albumen prints were created using egg whites, coating photographic paper, making them sensitive to light. Imagine the labor involved in producing thousands of these. And consider the process – the layering of materials, the chemical reactions creating a lasting image, and how a fleeting performance of a person solidifies onto such a small scale for massive circulation. Editor: And that mass production is *key*. This image, which exists due to its ability to market cigarettes, speaks to the emerging culture of consumerism in the late 19th century. A working actress reduced to a commercial image is then further consumed by a male dominated industry: tobacco. We are not even questioning whether it may not even be *her* but a stand in, therefore multiplying our questions about image and power. Who chose to portray her? Curator: Absolutely. But it is hard not to think also of Thorp herself in the matter. As a woman in theatre, presumably battling the limited opportunities available at the time, and trying to find success, to achieve more presence and status than usual, through posing in a widely distributed card, even if a product’s advertisement. Editor: Yet we need to note the context for our 21st century viewpoint: Her visibility *is* the product; Her image and reputation are the commodity that increases popularity of Cross-Cut Cigarettes...It speaks to the ongoing challenge female actors have of achieving their own image within the media sphere, one not defined for the public's and often patriarchal's male pleasure and benefit. Curator: Looking at it today makes us confront those complicated questions of labor, visibility, and consumption which are materialized in something as mundane as a tobacco card, allowing for such broad discussion. Editor: Precisely. The cigarette card becomes more than a mere advertisement—it becomes a complex record of its time and beyond.