Card Number 8, Julia Cunningham, from the Actors and Actresses series (N145-4) issued by Duke Sons & Co. to promote Cameo Cigarettes 1880s

Editor: So this piece, from the Met, is a promotional card from the 1880s – "Card Number 8, Julia Cunningham, from the Actors and Actresses series" – advertising Duke's Cameo Cigarettes. It’s a photograph, and Julia Cunningham’s…pose, her whole presentation…it’s kind of…provocative for the time, don’t you think? What catches your eye? Curator: Oh, provocative indeed! It throws you for a loop, doesn’t it? More than her risqué outfit—which is pretty shocking for the era—I'm really drawn to her direct gaze, how she isn't shying away from the viewer, almost challenging us. Editor: Yeah, it is her gaze! It feels…powerful? Curator: Exactly! These tobacco cards were little slices of fleeting fame. To be chosen, and then to meet the gaze, that little burst of notoriety must have been potent for her. These women were actively carving their own spaces. I love how the very mundane of tobacco gets all twisted with dreams of stardom, don't you? Editor: That makes me think about…like…early influencer culture? Building a persona, commodifying yourself… Curator: Bingo. She's not just selling cigarettes, darling; she's selling herself, ambition, maybe a little rebellion packaged up with every purchase. And that little peek into a lost world...delicious, isn't it? Editor: It really is. Seeing it as early self-promotion reframes everything, makes her such an active participant. I completely missed that!