Highlands, from the Dancing Girls of the World series (N185) issued by Wm. S. Kimball & Co. 1889

Curator: The jaunty angle of her skirt hints at something flirtatious, no? Editor: This is "Highlands," a chromolithograph issued around 1889 by Wm. S. Kimball & Co., part of their "Dancing Girls of the World" series. Instantly, the tension for me lies in its simultaneous exoticism and mundane purpose as a cigarette card. Curator: Cigarette card, huh? Well, there's a frisson right there! I find it deliciously frivolous and surprisingly cheeky given the primness we often associate with the era. And the gold sheen background makes her pop, doesn't it? Like a little mischievous imp dancing on the rolling hills she presumably represents. Editor: "Represent" is the operative word. I find myself caught up on the gaze. Consider how this image exoticizes Scottish culture. It reduces a whole heritage to a simplistic, hyper-sexualized figure. What is presented as celebratory or "cheeky," as you say, is rooted in colonial ways of seeing, framing difference as spectacle for consumption. Curator: Hmmm... you know, I hadn't really considered the consumption angle so literally before, but I see what you mean. Perhaps she’s not so much dancing *on* the Highlands, as performing them, for us. And her demureness now feels less coquettish and more... calculated? It makes me question my initial reaction; all that lighthearted charm feels less innocent somehow. Editor: Precisely. And it makes one wonder who this "dancing girl" really is. Where did Kimball find his "Highlands"? This speaks volumes about how advertising and art participate in crafting these types of stereotypes. Whose story gets erased in the making of this image? Curator: This little card has certainly taken on a life beyond its intended purpose, hasn't it? It started as a lighthearted escape, but it's become a much darker invitation to question what we're really seeing. Editor: Absolutely. It prompts a vital interrogation of how images circulate and the colonial baggage they carry, challenging us to look deeper.