Olive May in Arizona, from the Actresses series (T1), distributed by the American Tobacco Co. to promote Turkish Trophies Cigarettes 1900

"Olive May in Arizona" is a promotional print by Frederick Moladore Spiegle, distributed by the American Tobacco Company to market Turkish Trophies Cigarettes. This work offers a lens through which to consider the era’s cultural landscape, celebrity, and the performance of identity. The depiction of Olive May dressed in what is likely a theatrical or romanticized version of Western attire reflects a fascination with both celebrity culture and the “Wild West.” The commercial context of this image underscores the complex interplay between entertainment, identity, and consumerism. The actress Olive May presents a persona that is both familiar and exoticized, playing into prevailing tropes of femininity, race, and class. The imagined or performed identities remind us to think critically about the ways in which we construct and consume images of ourselves and others. How do these images, circulated by commercial interests, shape our understanding of ourselves, and what does it mean to participate in their ongoing reproduction?