Plate 15, from the Fans of the Period series (N7) for Allen & Ginter Cigarettes Brands 1889

This small chromolithograph was made as a promotional insert for Allen & Ginter Cigarettes, in Richmond, Virginia. It’s one of fifty in a series that depicts different kinds of fans and fashionable women. The technique here, chromolithography, involves using multiple lithographic stones, one for each color. This allowed for mass production with a relatively high degree of detail, and was therefore perfect for promotional ephemera like this. The process also implies a whole division of labor - artists to make the original image, skilled technicians to transfer it to stone, and then the press operators who would have churned these out by the thousands. This card is a artifact of its time, reflecting both the industrialization of printing and the marketing strategies used to promote consumer goods. Recognizing these material and social factors help us to see beyond the surface of the image, and understand it as a product of its cultural moment.