Miss Elton, from the Actors and Actresses series (N145-2) issued by Duke Sons & Co. to promote Cross Cut Cigarettes 1880s

This is "Miss Elton", a promotional card for Cross Cut Cigarettes, created around the turn of the century by W. Duke, Sons & Co. These cards, featuring actresses, athletes, and other public figures, were a popular marketing tactic. But what does it mean to use a woman's image to sell tobacco? Miss Elton, posed in a suggestive manner, embodies the era's complex negotiation of female identity, caught between empowerment and commodification. She has been placed into an imagined landscape, turning her into a kind of Eve suspended in a prelapsarian jungle scene. Cards like these offer insight into the cultural values and social norms of the time. They remind us to consider the historical context in which images are created and consumed, and to think critically about the messages they convey about gender, desire, and the power of representation.