Card Number 131, Carrie Perkins, from the Actors and Actresses series (N145-2) issued by Duke Sons & Co. to promote Cross Cut Cigarettes 1880s

Curator: What an arresting image this is. This is Card Number 131 from the Actors and Actresses series, part of a promotional set issued by Duke Sons & Co. for Cross Cut Cigarettes in the 1880s. The subject is Carrie Perkins. Editor: Yes, there's a certain theatrical quality about it. The sepia tone lends an old-world charm, and the subject's confident pose and elaborate costume—is that a miniature military-style jacket?—draw the eye immediately. The composition seems carefully considered to use contrasts. Curator: Absolutely. The distribution of such cards had a significant impact on late 19th-century culture. Cigarette cards functioned not only as advertising, but also as accessible cultural artifacts that played a crucial role in shaping public perceptions of female performers and wider gender roles during a transformative period. Think about the male gaze that shaped the image... Editor: Well, consider the light—soft, diffused, almost romantic. The contrast is carefully modulated to create form, emphasizing Perkins' posture and the contours of her garment. Note how the slight blur to the backdrop removes our need to be grounded in setting and forces the subject and her persona as the core of the work. Curator: Precisely, while Duke Sons & Co were ostensibly selling cigarettes, they were simultaneously trading in ideals of celebrity and performance, influencing aspirations and perceptions of female artistry. As Perkins stares up and away, is she inviting us in or pushing us away? Her race, class and gender background adds depth to her presence on the card, and she embodies certain intersectional concerns of her period, no? Editor: I think to dissect this based only on social expectation could miss out on considering its formal achievement. The attention to detail, for instance, and the framing of her body using the built environment to create a perfect form, creates visual harmony, one reinforced by repeated geometrical shapes, that might suggest balance but also entrapment. Curator: Perhaps it does both; maybe such rigid social structure held her within its architecture. Either way, cards like these offer us a tangible connection to a bygone era, sparking dialogue around women's representation in popular culture and also wider, intersecting struggles for recognition. Editor: For me, it underscores the idea of capturing fleeting moments. To see in her such deliberate, conscious, almost architectural posing to display shape, creates a strange suspension and feeling of visual delight and peace.