Zulah Williams, from the Actresses series (N245) issued by Kinney Brothers to promote Sweet Caporal Cigarettes 1890

Editor: Here we have a sepia-toned print from 1890 featuring Zulah Williams, an actress of the time, it seems. The Kinney Brothers Tobacco Company produced it as part of an "Actresses" series, for Sweet Caporal Cigarettes. She’s in costume, something elaborate, and it’s hard to tell the scale, it feels so distant. What catches your eye when you look at this, and how do you connect with this piece? Curator: It’s funny you mention “distant,” because I feel a tremendous closeness. It whispers secrets of a vaudeville dream world—Zulah, forever frozen in a moment of posed confidence. The tobacco card itself, now faded like an old love letter, hints at a bygone era when performers were both celebrated and, in a way, commodified. Can't you almost smell the sweet smoke swirling around her? It's like the image wants to break free, yearns to burst from its tiny rectangle. Do you find the commercial context detracts from her presence, or adds another layer to it? Editor: That's an interesting point. I hadn’t considered the intimacy – maybe it’s the pose, something about the soft lighting. It seems contradictory. The commodification cheapens it somehow, and yet it preserves her image. I suppose it's both. The perspective is complex. Curator: Exactly. That very contradiction is what makes it hum! It reminds us that art can exist anywhere. Imagine her, pasted on some chap's cigarette packet, off to a show. Tell me, what would you imagine her performing, looking at that theatrical costuming and pose? Editor: I envision something glamorous and lively. Maybe a can-can. It seems right, from the attire. Thinking about it now, what strikes me is how such a simple print tells such an interesting story. It is beautiful and intricate in a subtle way. Curator: Right! A complete story wrapped up in a little package, just waiting to be unfolded, savored like the tobacco it was made to advertise. Zulah and us linked over all that time.