Rowing Club, from World's Dudes series (N31) for Allen & Ginter Cigarettes 1888

Curator: This drawing, "Rowing Club, from World's Dudes series (N31) for Allen & Ginter Cigarettes," dates to 1888 and is part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s collection. It was created by Allen & Ginter, employing colored pencil and print. Editor: It's charming, if a bit ridiculous. He looks so self-consciously stylish, like a dandy trying his hand at manual labor. The tiny cigarette card format also lends it an appealingly miniaturist quality. Curator: It's fascinating to consider the social context. These cards were inserted into cigarette packs. Depicting “World's Dudes” provided consumers with images of idealized masculinity at a time of rapid industrialization and social change. It’s all about aspiration. Editor: The figure's garb does seem rather performative. He's holding an oar, yet the outfit feels more about aesthetics than practicality. The striped shirt, jaunty hat, even the lavender trousers—they’re telegraphing leisure and belonging to a certain social set. Rowing, here, seems to symbolize upper-class recreation. Curator: Exactly. It speaks to the power of advertising to construct identities. The image promoted a lifestyle, associating it with the Allen & Ginter brand. Editor: Notice, too, how the circular emblem at his chest echoes nautical themes, like a stylized life preserver, even resembling some kind of amulet or symbolic shield. Curator: And the overall impressionism of the piece creates a feeling of being present at that time and place. Editor: Perhaps it taps into a romanticized vision of outdoor leisure, which has deep cultural roots. The oar is both a practical tool and a scepter-like symbol of authority within the rowing club hierarchy. These small objects hold layers of meaning far beyond their advertising function. Curator: These images give insight to societal aspiration at a turning point of modernity, one that we would hardly recognise today, but that continues to resonate. Editor: The rowing club member serves as a surprisingly potent reminder of how symbols embed social aspiration and status, even within the ephemeral world of advertising.