Card 747, from the Actors and Actresses series (N45, Type 4) for Virginia Brights Cigarettes 1885 - 1891

Curator: This is card 747, from the Actors and Actresses series (N45, Type 4) created for Virginia Brights Cigarettes sometime between 1885 and 1891 by Allen & Ginter. Editor: It’s sepia-toned and striking! The figure seems almost suspended, as if she might be about to step right out of the card. And, I notice it's a small rectangular piece, intended for a cigarette pack, giving it a practical, functional aspect to what we'd now consider a photograph. Curator: Precisely! The commercial context is crucial. Cigarette cards like these functioned as both advertising and collectibles, mass-produced using photography and print technology. It’s interesting to consider the scale of production and consumption. Who was collecting these? And how did their distribution network function to further consumerism? Editor: The subject matter interests me. I think she embodies late 19th-century ideals of feminine beauty. What do you make of her attire, though? I wonder about the associations it held at the time? It gives an impression of sportiness... Is it a nod to a specific performance? Curator: Likely an attempt to connect tobacco consumption with dynamism and modernity. The “bright” in “Virginia Brights” refers to the lighter color of the cured tobacco, an innovation that changed production methods and market preferences. She's posed to make you think of modernity as purchased through commodity. Editor: Fascinating how interwoven the symbols are! We're invited to see in the image not only physical activity, but something perhaps risqué that links tobacco to social transgression in gender expectations. I'm seeing themes of emerging athleticism but confined and packaged as commodity to drive sales. Curator: Yes, her body becomes a marketing tool, connecting the product with aspirations. Her image, mass-produced, served to circulate desires. What we observe here is the birth of advertising, as it's understood today. Editor: It makes you wonder, doesn’t it, about all the unrecorded labor and hidden narratives woven into seemingly simple objects like this. Looking closely, I now think about how our modern culture is not at all different. The symbols have been modernized and digitized but they have the same social impacts on consumption. Curator: I agree; examining it in this way reveals much about production, materiality, and the consumer landscape. Editor: Yes, and understanding how she stood as a figure linking industry and aspirations deepens our appreciation of her social symbolic position.