Custom House Officer, from the Occupations for Women series (N166) for Old Judge and Dogs Head Cigarettes 1887

This small chromolithograph, "Custom House Officer," was produced by Goodwin & Company, sometime between 1850 and 1950. Part of a series called "Occupations for Women", this image presents a fantastical take on women's roles in the workplace. Note the tongue-in-cheek nature of the image. The custom house officer is in a revealing outfit, adorned with feathers and frills, as she inspects a trunk labeled "London." This anachronistic depiction challenges conventions of the time by placing a woman in a traditionally male role, but undermines any progressive message by sexualizing the figure, reinforcing stereotypical ideas about women’s roles in society. The series would have been distributed by tobacco companies, in a very direct example of the commercialization of imagery. To gain a full understanding of this image, we must consider the social and economic conditions of its time. Examining census records, trade publications, and advertising ephemera can give us insight into the shifting roles of women and the marketing strategies employed by companies in the 19th and 20th centuries.