Naval Cadet, Royal Navy, England, 1869, from the Military Series (N224) issued by Kinney Tobacco Company to promote Sweet Caporal Cigarettes 1888

This small chromolithograph was produced in 1869 by the Kinney Tobacco Company as a promotional item for Sweet Caporal Cigarettes. It depicts a young, white Naval Cadet of the Royal Navy in England. These collectible cards were immensely popular, offering glimpses into various professions and national identities. But these images also functioned as tools of cultural and economic power. In post-Civil War America, advertising campaigns were often used to promote idealized, and frequently exclusionary, visions of society. The pristine image of the naval cadet presents an aspirational, masculine ideal deeply entwined with notions of imperial power and class privilege, while completely erasing the diverse realities of those who labored to produce the tobacco or were excluded from such positions of authority. Consider the stories untold within this small, glossy card – stories of labor, colonialism, and the complex construction of identity in the 19th century.