Lucy Bernard, from the Actors and Actresses series (N45, Type 1) for Virginia Brights Cigarettes 1885 - 1891

Curator: This sepia-toned image is part of the Actors and Actresses series, a cigarette card featuring Lucy Bernard, dating from between 1885 and 1891. It was produced by Allen & Ginter. Editor: There’s an undeniable sense of… theatricality to it. Lucy Bernard seems almost to be caught between worlds – child and adult, staged and spontaneous. Curator: The 'caught' sensation stems from the way photography was emerging as both a mass-produced object *and* an evidentiary capture, of not just likeness but ‘aura,’ to borrow Benjamin's term. Cigarette cards blurred the line between commercialism, celebrity and cultural memory. Each card printed by a commercial press reproduced for wide consumption, an affordable product for a growing middle class. Editor: Affordability is key. These cards distributed through the popular consumption of cigarettes also participated in a visual culture meant for use: collecting, trading, displaying. The cards provided accessible images that bypassed traditional routes of accessing theater or the arts. Who was Lucy Bernard, though? Curator: Ah, there’s the mystery. She may have been a popular stage actress at the time. The hat suggests theatrical roles, drawing on imagery tied to romantic heroes or adventurers. But beyond that... like the image's soft focus, details fade into ambiguity. It invites the viewer to imagine. Her presentation evokes youthful masculinity from both garb and pose. Editor: True, it certainly disrupts standard assumptions about performance or gender. The clothes denote performance of the everyday. Those manufactured stockings… the weight of textiles and accessories on the body must’ve informed performance. Curator: And remember, a portrait, especially one destined for mass consumption, performs a function. Here, Bernard becomes a symbol not just of theatrical fame, but aspiration—packaged within the material reality of tobacco consumption. The Allen & Ginter firm made her accessible, at a cost of consumption. The circulation of this photo, through a physical product is central to understanding its impact. Editor: I'm left pondering the implications of using celebrity—or the semblance of it—to sell cigarettes, and how the performance is ultimately directed towards consumption itself. It’s far from being just a snapshot, but the construction of desire made tangible in material form. Curator: A point well-taken; the iconography is inextricably linked with material production.