Miss Annie Summerville, from the Actresses series (N245) issued by Kinney Brothers to promote Sweet Caporal Cigarettes 1890

This card featuring Miss Annie Summerville was produced by the Kinney Brothers Tobacco Company as part of an advertising series for Sweet Caporal Cigarettes. These cards, traded and collected during the late 19th century, offer us a glimpse into the construction of celebrity and femininity during this period. Summerville is dressed in what appears to be a theatrical costume, perhaps alluding to a specific role she played on stage. Her confident pose challenges conventional representations of women as passive objects. Yet, this subversion exists within the confines of commercial interests: her image sells cigarettes, reinforcing the commodification of female identity. Consider how the actress’s persona blends the boundaries between public and private, art and commerce. The image is both a celebration of a performer and an advertisement, blurring the lines between representation and exploitation. In the end, the photograph encapsulates the complex interplay of gender, performance, and consumer culture in the late 1800s.