Steamship Niagara, Ward Line, from the Ocean and River Steamers series (N83) for Duke brand cigarettes 1887

Curator: Check this out—it’s “Steamship Niagara, Ward Line” created around 1887, part of the Ocean and River Steamers series. Editor: Immediately I see...longing. That wistful gaze of the woman in profile. It's melancholic, even romantic. It makes me wonder where she's headed, or perhaps what she's leaving behind. Curator: Right? These cards, made by W. Duke, Sons & Co., were actually tucked into cigarette packs. Can you imagine? Pocket-sized reveries about travel! Editor: Well, commodification is never just that, is it? This card, and others like it, speak volumes about the burgeoning leisure class, access to international travel… also about global capital’s dependencies on tobacco and its impact on public health! That flag tells a lot of the story of colonialism in this moment, the USA and expansion. Curator: See, I look at it and think of my great aunt Millie, who collected stamps. Such humble origins for such beautiful miniature artworks. I wonder how many smokers even noticed. The colours are muted and calming. Editor: Colour always carries ideologies. Notice how that very precise wave, in the ocean, is very similar in tone to the lady's pink cheeks, creating a dialogue between them and the landscape she might soon explore. So...do these images celebrate women traveling or merely seeing women? Curator: It is tricky, isn’t it? The lady herself, seems ready to take on the world. This really represents a moment when advertising and art got all tangled up together! I mean, how meta to use art to get people hooked on…cigarettes. Editor: We see that exact problematic entwinement in new mediums constantly—but with that face, on a collectible, with the symbol of an imperial country and on the brink of the turn of the century... It is like the promise, threat, and allure of "elsewhere" all rolled into one. I see privilege and also anxiety for a transition that would exclude much more than it included. Curator: Makes you think, doesn't it? Maybe there is still hope we will become nostalgic for different things.