Madagascar, from Flags of All Nations, Series 2 (N10) for Allen & Ginter Cigarettes Brands 1890

This small chromolithograph of Madagascar's flag comes from a series produced in the late 19th century by Allen & Ginter, a cigarette company based in Richmond, Virginia. The series, "Flags of All Nations," reflects an era of expanding global trade and, of course, colonialism. Cigarette cards like these were designed to be collected, acting as miniature encyclopedias of the world. The image presents Madagascar's flag against a backdrop of the island's landscape. The flag itself features horizontal bands of red, white, and green, with a white crescent moon—symbols that likely held specific cultural meanings within Madagascar. These trading cards were distributed by the company to promote their cigarettes. They were part of a larger strategy to associate smoking with worldly knowledge and sophistication. By collecting and trading these cards, smokers were invited to participate in a visual taxonomy of nations, subtly reinforcing America's growing role on the world stage. To fully understand the image, one would need to investigate the history of Madagascar and how these commercial images played a role in constructing a globalized view of the world for American consumers.