From the Girls and Children series (N64) promoting Virginia Brights Cigarettes for Allen & Ginter brand tobacco products 1886

This small chromolithograph, part of Allen & Ginter's "From the Girls and Children" series, promotes Virginia Brights Cigarettes. It presents a cherubic figure, a winged child draped in classical garb, offering cigarettes instead of more wholesome fare. Made in the late 19th century in the United States, this image speaks volumes about the era's marketing strategies and social mores. The visual codes draw on classical imagery, associating the product with purity and innocence while directly targeting it to consumers. The commercial use of children raises ethical questions that were largely unaddressed at the time, reflecting a very different set of values. To truly understand this artifact, we turn to sources beyond art history: studies of advertising, social histories of tobacco use, and analyses of childhood in the Gilded Age. The meaning of art always depends on its context.