Royal Horse Artillery, England, from the Military Uniforms series (T182) issued by Abdul Cigarettes 1881

This small card, printed by Abdul Cigarettes, is part of a series depicting military uniforms. The image presents a portrait of a soldier from the Royal Horse Artillery, in England. It's worth asking what function such imagery serves in a commercial context. Cigarette cards were popular collectables, often traded by children. Here, the iconography of empire is being circulated as a kind of everyday currency, normalizing military might as a source of national pride, and a symbol of prestige. The brilliant colours and fine detail would have been made possible by recent advances in printing technology, enabling mass production of these cards. What was the legacy of empire, and how did the imagery of military personnel contribute to the normalisation of colonial violence? We can explore these questions further by researching the archives of advertising companies and the history of British military campaigns during this period. Through this we can understand better the cultural context for the production and consumption of images like these.