Card 417, Rhea, from the Actors and Actresses series (N45, Type 1) for Virginia Brights Cigarettes 1885 - 1891

This is card 417, Rhea, from the Actors and Actresses series, a trade card lithograph produced by Allen & Ginter for Virginia Brights Cigarettes. This card is a part of a series that reflects the late 19th-century’s fascination with celebrities, particularly actors and actresses. The portrait of Rhea, a stage actress, invites us to consider the construction of celebrity and femininity during this era. Note how Rhea is adorned in what appears to be exoticized, theatrical attire, playing into the period's Orientalist fantasies. The commercial purpose of the card – to promote cigarettes – intersects with the promotion of a certain kind of feminine ideal. As a consumer item, the card was meant to be collected and traded, thus embedding images of idealized womanhood into everyday life. Consider how such images might have shaped perceptions of women and their roles in society, caught between the private sphere and the public stage.