Warrior, Coast of Guinea, from the Military Series (N224) issued by Kinney Tobacco Company to promote Sweet Caporal Cigarettes 1888

Curator: This is a chromolithograph from 1888 titled "Warrior, Coast of Guinea." It was produced by the Kinney Tobacco Company as part of their "Sweet Caporal Cigarettes" series. Editor: It's striking, visually. A flat, almost cartoonish rendering of a man, and the juxtaposition of his traditional attire with what appears to be a very modern rifle creates an immediate sense of… dissonance? Curator: Indeed. Kinney Tobacco Company issued these cards to promote their cigarettes, depicting different "exotic" military figures from around the world. Consider the industrial process: mass-produced lithographs circulated with a consumer good, tobacco. Editor: So, it’s a form of advertising, designed to sell cigarettes through an appeal to…adventure, exoticism? But it's also circulating an image of race and power. How does this imagery of a "Warrior" intersect with European colonial narratives about Africa? Curator: Precisely. It's steeped in the Orientalist aesthetic prevalent at the time, simplifying and essentializing the depicted individual into a type – "the African Warrior". But the materials are telling: Cheaply made prints in massive quantities shaped popular perceptions. The commodification of the image, then, played a crucial role in shaping those perceptions. The value lies not just in what it depicts but how it was manufactured and consumed. Editor: The choice of medium, the chromolithograph itself, is really doing some work here in forming the consumer’s idea of value and otherness. So, are we looking at how a capitalist, colonial mindset shaped artistic production and popular taste through this image? The tobacco company creating a collectible, tradeable item rooted in colonial imagery is quite telling about how race was produced and consumed in the 19th Century. Curator: Exactly. The materiality of the card connects to a global network of trade, labor, and power imbalances. Editor: Right, because the means of its production and distribution – the industrial printing, the tobacco trade – are inherently linked to colonial exploitation. I see the image of a proud figure, yet I’m aware of this insidious framework, and that shifts the initial reading of this striking figure considerably. Curator: Absolutely. This little card serves as a potent reminder of the material and political forces shaping our understanding of the world, and the legacy they leave. Editor: It really highlights how something as simple as a cigarette card can carry significant cultural and political weight. Thanks for illuminating those threads!