Set Introduction Cover Card, from Harlequin Cards, 2nd Series (N220) issued by Kinney Bros. 1889

This chromolithograph was produced by Kinney Brothers Tobacco Company in New York, as a collectable card that was included in cigarette packets. Here, we see a burlesque of cross-cultural relations through racial caricature. Consider the way the central figure’s ethnicity is performed: the fez, the skin tone, the leering smile. He is flanked by two figures coded as Western: the woman in a bonnet and the figure in military dress, complete with a Union Jack bustle. The card dates from the late nineteenth century, an era defined by the expansion of European empires into Asia, Africa and the Middle East. The image participates in an imperialist fantasy of the East as an available object of Western desire. These cards were immensely popular, revealing a great deal about the racial attitudes of the American public at the time. Understanding this image requires close attention to the history of American advertising, popular culture, and the legacy of colonialism.