A Taking Man, from the Jokes series (N87) for Duke brand cigarettes 1890

This lithograph, "A Taking Man," was created by W. Duke, Sons & Co. in the United States as part of a series of trading cards that came with Duke brand cigarettes. The card depicts a caricature of a man operating a large format camera on a tripod. The title is a play on words, suggesting both the action of taking a photograph and the man's supposedly charming personality. The late 19th century was a period of rapid industrialization and urbanization, and burgeoning advertising catered to the growing consumer culture. Tobacco companies like Duke used these cards as a promotional tool. They offered a glimpse into the era's humor and social attitudes. The cartoonish depiction of the photographer might reflect contemporary anxieties about the rise of new technologies and professions. Is the joke at the expense of the sitter, the photographer, or the new medium of photography? To understand the meaning of this image, we can turn to archives of advertising history, the history of photography, and studies of American social attitudes during the Gilded Age. Art like this becomes a lens through which we can examine the values and anxieties of the past.