Minnie Palmer, from the Actresses and Celebrities series (N60, Type 2) promoting Little Beauties Cigarettes for Allen & Ginter brand tobacco products 1887

Curator: This albumen-print comes from a series titled “Actresses and Celebrities,” released in 1887 by Allen & Ginter to promote their Little Beauties Cigarettes. The sitter is Minnie Palmer, a Canadian-American actress and singer. Editor: Oh, look at her. There’s a real softness to this image; a gentle stillness that kind of draws you in. Maybe it's the way the light catches on her lace collar or just how quietly she seems to be looking at you. Curator: These cards, along with others that depicted baseball players or birds, became quite popular in the late 19th century. Tobacco companies sought to boost sales and create collectible items to attract customers. This piece provides insight into the commodification of celebrity and the interplay between entertainment, marketing, and social ideals of beauty. Editor: It’s funny, isn't it? She probably had no say about having her face plastered on cigarette packets. This photograph would have been reproduced endlessly, travelling far and wide as just another pretty thing to glance at. I wonder what she'd think, knowing we're still looking at it over a century later, only now it’s in a museum. Curator: Exactly! Consider too how Palmer's image circulates within networks of power, class, and gender at that historical moment. Tobacco cards often presented idealized visions of women, reinforcing conventional roles, while subtly influencing perceptions of beauty. Editor: It makes you question the gaze, right? We think we're just admiring her frilly collar and wondering about the life of an actress, but we're also sort of absorbing all those hidden, coded messages of the time. I’ll never look at a vintage photograph quite the same way again, to be honest. Curator: That's what makes exploring these images so valuable; how it asks us to excavate cultural history. Editor: Totally, like unwrapping layers to reveal something that continues to have resonance, which makes this so worthwhile.