Daisy Williams, from the Actresses series (N245) issued by Kinney Brothers to promote Sweet Caporal Cigarettes 1890

This photograph of Daisy Williams was made by the Kinney Brothers Tobacco Company, likely sometime in the late 19th century. It's a printed card, a piece of paper really, made by mass production. The image, sepia toned, has an alluring quality, which was entirely the point. These cards were included in packs of Sweet Caporal Cigarettes. Consider the industrial process: mass manufacture, with all its social implications. The image of Daisy, an actress, was intended to circulate widely, boosting sales. What is most interesting is the relationship between the photograph, the cigarettes, and the culture of celebrity. Daisy's image, multiplied and distributed, becomes a collectible commodity. The intense labor of tobacco farming and factory production meets the aspirational world of theatre. This confluence reveals the complex ways that desire, labor, and consumption were intertwined in the burgeoning age of mass media. The image asks us to consider value, not just in art, but also in the everyday materials that shape our lives.