9 de Julio, Republic of Argentina, from the Famous Ships series (N50) for Virginia Brights Cigarettes 1895

Curator: The '9 de Julio, Republic of Argentina' print from 1895 strikes me with its somber tone despite its proud subject. Allen & Ginter really captured a certain gravitas using just ink. What's your initial take on this tiny marvel? Editor: It has an undeniable romanticism about it. Like a dream, or memory. Look at the level of detail; you'd almost think it was a photograph. But those fine lines could only come from an engraver's hand, tracing national pride onto each tiny card. What do you suppose a tobacco company wanted with images like these? Curator: It’s fascinating isn't it? The Victorians had a real mania for collecting. Trading cards weren’t just about selling smokes; they were mini encyclopedias tucked into your pack, snippets of the world that expanded people's understanding. And they offer symbolic protection, perhaps, as it is one of the greatest warships that served as Argentina's second armored cruiser! A floating metaphor for national identity and modernity printed on something so fleeting and fragile. A visual poem. Editor: A potent and bittersweet combination indeed! The ship becomes this kind of deity sailing upon paper seas! It’s such a tangible fragment of history, almost ghostly when printed only with ink on paper. Do you think the fleeting nature of a cigarette mirrored people's perspectives about Argentina in 1895? A powerful but ultimately transient empire? Curator: Empires always come and go, so I suspect so. Perhaps the idea of placing that fleeting beauty onto a mass-produced product speaks to its universal appeal. Its presence ensures that it won't easily vanish! Allen & Ginter seemed to have intuited something essential about human longing— the desire to grasp history, hold it in our hands. That’s something worth chewing on. Editor: Precisely, and perhaps that’s what makes this modest little print resonate even today: an intimation of the timeless and the timely, dancing in sepia tones upon a scrap of cardstock.