Card Number 241, Dupree, from the Actors and Actresses series (N145-1) issued by Duke Sons & Co. to promote Cross Cut Cigarettes 1880s

Curator: Here we have "Card Number 241, Dupree, from the Actors and Actresses series," an advertising card from the 1880s produced by W. Duke, Sons & Co. to promote Cross Cut Cigarettes. It's currently part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art's collection. Editor: Stripes and smokes, huh? My first thought: the past was definitely weird. She looks like she's escaped from some kind of wonderfully bizarre circus. Curator: Indeed, the portrait's formal structure is intriguing. The stark vertical stripes of Dupree’s lower garments are offset by the gentle curves of her upper attire and the blurred, almost dreamlike backdrop, creating a compelling visual dichotomy. Note the compositional interplay between the typography advertising cigarettes and the subject, implying a cultural value system where beauty endorses vice. Editor: Or, you know, a job is a job! There's something in her expression, too – a bit mischievous, like she knows she's part of the show, selling dreams along with cigarettes. I love the flatness of the print medium; it's so different from our slick, high-definition ads of today. Gives it an honest vibe. Curator: Precisely. The material reality—photography reproduced via print—is crucial. The card itself acts as a semiotic vehicle; the photograph is no mere depiction but a cultural artifact mediating performer, commodity, and consumer. Editor: It feels oddly intimate, too. You can imagine someone carrying this little card in their wallet. Like a tiny window into a vanished world, a little piece of vaudeville charm and societal… hmm, cigarette-endorsed hopes. It would be cool to learn about this Dupree and what she did on the stage. She probably knew the card would be used to peddle cancer sticks, maybe laughed all the way to the bank. Curator: Her role, then, extends beyond mere advertisement; she's an active participant in shaping the social text. The very texture of the aged paper emphasizes the photograph as a temporal marker, as a vestige of its original moment of cultural production and consumption. Editor: I'll stick with dreaming of her performance; your reading makes it all very serious. I feel like she had the best smile! But I agree that seeing how smoking got an endorsement through actresses like her and photography does provide insight into some different values from the 1880s!