Card 813, Maggie Arlington, from the Actors and Actresses series (N45, Type 2) for Virginia Brights Cigarettes 1885 - 1891

Curator: Let’s turn our attention to this delicate piece, "Card 813, Maggie Arlington, from the Actors and Actresses series (N45, Type 2)" created sometime between 1885 and 1891 by Allen & Ginter. Editor: The first thing that strikes me is the fragility and ephemerality of it all. The subtle sepia tones, the small scale. It whispers of a bygone era. Curator: Precisely. These cards were actually included in packs of Virginia Brights Cigarettes. Tobacco companies often used images of popular actresses to market their products. In this way, imagery was deployed in the broader public sphere. Editor: That explains the commercial aspect. But the image itself is intriguing. Maggie Arlington, posed in profile, adorned with a delicate headdress...It’s such an interesting portrait format for tobacco cards. Her look seems both self-possessed and melancholic. I can feel echoes of societal expectations of women at the time, captured and contained. Curator: I agree, and such marketing of actresses illustrates the burgeoning celebrity culture of the late 19th century, when technological innovations enabled widespread reproductions and mass distribution. Collecting these cards was all the rage. This image is really part of a larger system, beyond a portrait of a woman. Editor: So, in a sense, Maggie Arlington’s image became a kind of cultural currency—consumed along with cigarettes. It underscores how intertwined commerce, entertainment, and cultural values really were at this moment in history. But the image choice. Arlington must have symbolized the ideal for her time? Curator: She certainly fit into the accepted, traditional mode of representing female beauty, appealing to a large, generalized consumer base. Editor: Considering this item as an artifact really deepens our engagement with this item and reveals how marketing influences our visual memory of the past. A tobacco card speaks volumes! Curator: Yes, indeed. It’s remarkable how such a seemingly trivial object can illuminate so much about the history of celebrity culture and marketing in the late 19th century.