Nellie Larkelle, from the Actors and Actresses series (N45, Type 1) for Virginia Brights Cigarettes 1885 - 1891

Editor: This is "Nellie Larkelle, from the Actors and Actresses series" by Allen & Ginter, dating from around 1885 to 1891. It looks like a print, originally for Virginia Brights Cigarettes. The sepia tones give it a somewhat dreamlike, ephemeral quality. How would you read this image? Curator: I see it as an artifact deeply embedded in a system of production and consumption. Consider the materiality: a card, cheap and easily disseminated, meant to be collected, traded, and, ultimately, discarded with the cigarette packaging. It’s advertising, first and foremost, using the allure of the stage actress to sell a mass-produced commodity. Editor: So you're saying the "art" here is really secondary to its function as an advertisement? Curator: Precisely! Think about the labor involved – the photograph, the printing process, the distribution network. It flattens the image of Nellie Larkelle herself, commodifying her image just as the tobacco is commodified. This tension between the individual and the mass market is really revealing. Does the theatrical costuming, too, become just another element within the capitalist system when repackaged for cigarettes? Editor: That's fascinating. I hadn't considered how the image itself becomes a commodity. I was just focusing on the person in the image! Curator: It highlights how "high art" and popular culture intertwine, even rely on each other. Nellie Larkelle's fame, her “art”, is now advertising’s mechanism. Editor: That connection makes me reconsider my initial perspective. It’s about a system that churns out images, fame, and cigarettes. Thanks! Curator: Exactly. Art is a tool of production within society. It’s more than just an aesthetic object.