Student, from World's Smokers series (N33) for Allen & Ginter Cigarettes 1888

Editor: This is "Student, from World's Smokers series (N33)" created in 1888 by Allen & Ginter, and it's a colored pencil print. It looks like an advertisement, or maybe a collectible card, and it’s a little jarring to see smoking presented so elegantly. What strikes you about this piece? Curator: Well, given its origins as a cigarette card, it's fascinating to consider how materiality shaped its function. The print medium itself made mass production and distribution possible, turning an image into a commodity inseparable from the consumption of tobacco. The artistry served less as autonomous expression than as an intrinsic component of industry and trade, directly boosting sales of goods. Editor: So, you’re saying the subject is secondary to its purpose as advertising? Curator: Not entirely secondary, no. But it encourages us to look closely at the portrayed ‘student’. How does his attire, that distinctly European military-esque jacket, alongside his leisurely engagement with the tobacco product reinforce cultural hierarchies and social aspirations embedded in this little commodity? Is it about selling a certain lifestyle as much as the product? Editor: I see what you mean. The uniform suggests a specific kind of privilege. It is a world of consumerism we still struggle with. Is that kind of subtle class signalling still embedded in advertising? Curator: Absolutely. This card then serves as a microcosm of late 19th-century capitalism. Studying the process, materials, and social implications here lets us examine a pivotal moment in the transformation of art into another aspect of a material culture obsessed with the production, distribution, and desire of products. The commodification of identity packaged along with your pack of smokes. Editor: That’s a very different way of seeing it. It makes me want to look at other seemingly simple images to see the commercial structure lurking beneath. Thanks for sharing.