Card Number 743, Miss Bella Biltar, from the Actors and Actresses series (N145-3) issued by Duke Sons & Co. to promote Cross Cut Cigarettes 1880s

This card, printed by W. Duke, Sons & Co. between 1870 and 1920, features Miss Bella Biltar, an actress, advertising Cross Cut Cigarettes. These cards functioned within a late 19th-century economy increasingly driven by advertising and mass media. By placing actresses on cigarette cards, Duke Sons & Co. intertwined the burgeoning celebrity culture with the consumption of tobacco. It's a classic example of how commercial interests latch onto and amplify cultural trends. The image itself is interesting; Miss Biltar is presented in a way that is both alluring and somewhat demure, reflecting the Victorian era's complex attitudes toward women and public performance. As historians, we examine not just the image, but the systems that produced and circulated it. Resources such as company records, theater archives, and period newspapers can reveal much about the social and economic conditions that gave rise to this seemingly simple advertising card. This is where we start to understand the complex relationship between art, commerce, and society.