Mena, from the Actors and Actresses series (N145-8) issued by Duke Sons & Co. to promote Duke Cigarettes 1890 - 1895

Editor: This sepia-toned photograph titled “Mena, from the Actors and Actresses series,” produced between 1890 and 1895 by W. Duke, Sons & Co., has a staged, almost theatrical quality. It makes me wonder about celebrity culture then. What can you tell me about it? Curator: This card wasn’t just a photograph; it was a trade card, a promotional item distributed with Duke Cigarettes. These weren't high art, but a clever marketing tactic, designed to encourage brand loyalty. The material context—a cigarette company using images of actresses—tells us much about the blurring of entertainment, celebrity, and consumer culture at the time. Editor: So, the point wasn't aesthetic beauty but rather a transactional relationship? Was there a social hierarchy being reinforced? Curator: Absolutely. The card functioned within a network of production, distribution, and consumption. The actress, "Mena," becomes a commodity herself. Her image is reproduced and circulated to sell cigarettes. Consider the labor involved – the photographers, the printers, the factory workers packaging cigarettes. It’s all interconnected. These objects democratized image consumption for the masses and created celebrity culture that previously did not exist in such a fashion. Editor: It's interesting how something that seems so simple was part of a larger economic and social system. Were people aware that such trivial things might tell about a society, economy, or values? Curator: They were participants in that society; such values may have seemed normal and obvious to them, to a point where people do not usually reflect upon them. What initially appears as a straightforward portrait of an actress reveals much about the burgeoning consumerism of the late 19th century. It wasn't merely about "art" in the traditional sense, but about the mechanisms of its creation and consumption. Editor: Thanks, I didn't expect a cigarette card to unpack such profound social issues! Curator: That's the beauty of studying the materiality of art; it challenges us to look beyond the surface and uncover the complex networks that shape our world.