Card Number 216, Daisy Murdoch, from the Actors and Actresses series (N145-7) issued by Duke Sons & Co. to promote Duke Cigarettes 1880s

Curator: My initial impression is pure nostalgia, it takes me back to a more delicate time in our popular imagery. Editor: You're spot on, I feel the same wave of softness. Let's dive into the history here. We're looking at card number 216 in a series from the 1880s, featuring Daisy Murdoch, an actress. It was produced by W. Duke, Sons & Co. as promotional material for their Duke Cigarettes, it can be found here in the Metropolitan Museum. Curator: So, a cigarette card. It feels… contradictory almost, this fragile aesthetic attached to something as brash as tobacco advertising. And she’s dressed as a fairy. Editor: The choice is deliberate! Actresses, genre paintings—these were fashionable. Tobacco companies adopted these styles to promote their product into the sphere of modern beauty and elegance. The “fairy” Daisy Murdoch— it speaks to cultural aspirations. It isn’t just tobacco: it is the allure of beauty, success, theatre, and the good life. Curator: I suppose, packaging aspirations makes good business. Does the puff of smoke translate into transformation? That's an odd connection to make, perhaps? She doesn’t just represent glamour but the possibility of fantasy? She could almost fly away on a cloud. Editor: In a way, she is selling not just the cigarette but also access to a realm of beauty and fantasy—a fleeting escape in every puff. Curator: And by collecting these cards, the consumer could accumulate these images of these figures—role models and fantasy characters available on a cardboard rectangle. Editor: Exactly! Mass culture spreading ideas, but within this tiny format—accessible art in a modern and capitalist moment. It's not just a photo or a pencil drawing but something much bigger and far more ambitious! Curator: What began as my simple reaction to an image evokes an entire network of production, commodification, and modern art, a historical network! I'll never look at cigarette cards in quite the same way! Editor: Or fairy costumes in period portraiture for that matter. From momentary delight to analytical insight.