Card 495, Leila Farrell, from the Actors and Actresses series (N45, Type 1) for Virginia Brights Cigarettes 1885 - 1891

This is Card 495, Leila Farrell, from the Actors and Actresses series, a small card made by Allen & Ginter for Virginia Brights Cigarettes. These cards emerged during a time of shifting cultural values, where celebrity and commercialism began to intertwine. Farrell, an actress of the late 19th century, is captured in a posed portrait, embodying a theatrical persona. Her costume and demeanor reflect the staged identity so common in popular culture. These cards, distributed with cigarette packs, participated in the construction of fame, while also reinforcing societal norms about gender and performance. Farrell and her fellow actresses were figures of aspiration and fantasy for a public increasingly captivated by the burgeoning entertainment industry. The emotional weight of the image resides in this tension between the real woman and the character she plays. The card captures not just an image of an actress, but an artifact of a society grappling with new forms of media, identity, and the spectacle of celebrity. It's a reminder of how our desires and aspirations are often shaped by the images we consume.