A Short History of General J. Longstreet, from the Histories of Generals series (N114) issued by W. Duke, Sons & Co. to promote Honest Long Cut Smoking and Chewing Tobacco 1888

Editor: This little print, "A Short History of General J. Longstreet," dates to 1888. It was actually a promotional item for tobacco! The scene of soldiers struggling with a cannon makes me feel the weight of history and maybe a touch of unease. What do you see in this piece, looking at it through a critical lens? Curator: This innocuous-seeming tobacco card offers a complex snapshot of post-Reconstruction America. Longstreet, controversially, allied with the Republican party after the Civil War, a betrayal in the eyes of many Southerners. Consider how this commercial image uses visual tropes of military history. The romanticized portrait, the suggestion of battlefield valor--all employed to sell tobacco, effectively normalizing and sanitizing a painful, complex past. Does this imagery reinforce or challenge existing power structures? Editor: I see what you mean. So, is it sort of exploiting his image while also kind of forgiving him, since it's trying to sell something? Curator: Exactly. And who is being targeted here? Primarily white, Southern consumers perhaps? How might Black Americans, whose liberation was directly impacted by the Civil War, have perceived this glorification of a Confederate general? Think about how marketing and advertising, even something as small as this card, participated in shaping historical narratives and solidifying certain racial and political viewpoints. It begs us to consider, who controls the narrative and for what purpose? Editor: I never would have considered all that! I guess I saw a historical portrait, but it's really a carefully constructed image designed to sway opinions. I’ll definitely look at these old images with new eyes now. Curator: And remember, that criticality applies to *all* images, then and now. The "truth" is always mediated.