Erato, Muse of Love Songs, from the Goddesses of the Greeks and Romans series (N188) issued by Wm. S. Kimball & Co. 1889

This small card was produced by the Wm. S. Kimball & Co., as part of a series depicting Greek and Roman Goddesses. It's a chromolithograph, a colorful print made using multiple lithographic stones. Consider the context: this wasn't high art, it was a mass-produced collectible, included in packages of Kimball's cigarettes. The image itself is fairly conventional. But the mode of production is significant. Chromolithography allowed for relatively cheap, vibrant images, fueling a boom in advertising and popular imagery. The process involved layering different colors from separate stones to create a full image. Look closely, and you can see a slight misregistration in the colors. This card embodies the industrialization of image-making, where skilled labor met the demands of mass consumption. So, next time you light up, remember that even the humblest artifact can tell a big story about materials, making, and our ever-evolving relationship with art and commerce.