Brain Food, from the Jokes series (N87) for Duke brand cigarettes 1890

This small card, part of a series of promotional ephemera produced in the late nineteenth century by W. Duke and Sons, presents a ram holding and standing on books. "Brain Food" reads the top, in direct connection to a Darwin book, whose pages are clearly visible. Here we have a symbolic layering: the ram, often associated with virility and stubbornness, now depicted as an intellectual. I’m reminded of classical images of satyrs and fauns, creatures of the wild associated with earthly pleasures. But this ram is domesticated. Knowledge, embodied by Darwin's book, tames the beast. The act of reading becomes a civilizing force. Yet, there’s an underlying tension. The ram stands awkwardly on the book, eating a page; its knowledge is consumed, not understood. This reflects a cyclical return to earlier forms, a visual metaphor for cultural memory. The animal, now with the book, carries within it an echo of primal ignorance, resurfacing in this comical scene.