India Peacock, from the Birds of the Tropics series (N5) for Allen & Ginter Cigarettes Brands 1889

This is a chromolithograph of an India Peacock, one of a series called Birds of the Tropics, produced for Allen & Ginter Cigarettes. Produced in America during the late nineteenth century, such cards were originally intended as advertising, incentives to encourage brand loyalty. They speak to the growing market in collectables during this period, and the growing sophistication of chromolithographic techniques. The imperial gaze is evident here, the printing and distribution of images like these across the developed world helped construct a picture of far-flung places and their natural resources. In the absence of further documentation, we might turn to period publications—travel writing, ornithological reports, or company records—to better understand the place of this image within the cultural and economic landscape of its time. In so doing, we begin to understand how the meaning of art is always contingent upon its social and institutional context.