Siam, from Flags of All Nations, Series 1 (N9) for Allen & Ginter Cigarettes Brands 1887

This is "Siam," a lithograph from the "Flags of All Nations" series, created by Allen & Ginter Cigarettes. These cards were inserted into cigarette packs, reflecting an era when tobacco companies used exotic imagery to market their products to a growing consumer culture. The flag depicted is a red field with a white elephant, the symbol of Siam, now Thailand. For the consumer, it evoked a sense of the exotic, conjuring images of distant lands and cultures ready for Western consumption. But this romanticization also obscures the complex histories of colonialism and trade that shaped these encounters. The imagery flattens a rich culture into a single, consumable image. We must think about whose stories are told, and whose are left out, in the making and selling of such objects. The card embodies the desires, and the erasures, of a world on the cusp of globalization.