Card Number 374, May Parks, from the Actors and Actresses series (N145-5) issued by Duke Sons & Co. to promote Cameo Cigarettes 1880s

Editor: Here we have "Card Number 374, May Parks," a promotional print from the 1880s by W. Duke, Sons & Co. It's fascinating to see a piece like this – part portrait, part advertisement. The woman depicted has this very demure expression. What strikes you when you look at it? Curator: You know, it whispers of a world consumed by fleeting beauty and commerce, doesn't it? Imagine those cigarette cards scattered like confetti, each a tiny window into celebrity, into desire. And the actress herself, May Parks – frozen in a pose, eternally young, yet forever tethered to this ephemeral brand. Does she have a say in her own image here, or is she merely a cog in Duke's marketing machine? I wonder... Editor: That's a darker perspective than I considered! I was just thinking about how pretty the image is! What is the appeal in making artwork an advertisement? Curator: Well, back then, art and commerce weren't such strange bedfellows. These cards democratized beauty. Suddenly, owning a portrait – even one hawking cigarettes – was within reach of the everyman. The technique of photography printed onto such delicate paper feels poignant, even, a reminder of how we're all eventually reduced to images, memories, faded impressions. You know? Editor: I see what you mean, though it's still a bit unsettling to think of art so directly linked to advertising. Thank you for showing me the image and the moment it represents. Curator: My pleasure! It's in these subtle disjunctions—the pretty face selling cancer sticks—that art truly reveals its power, doesn’t it? It lingers in the uncomfortable spaces. It lets us think more critically about commerce and fine art, simultaneously.