Leslie Chester, from the Actresses series (N246), Type 1, issued by Kinney Brothers to promote Sporting Extra Cigarettes 1888 - 1892

Editor: So, this is “Leslie Chester, from the Actresses series,” created sometime between 1888 and 1892 by the Kinney Brothers Tobacco Company. It’s a photograph, or maybe a print of a drawing? It's part of a promotional series. There’s something almost classical about her profile… it feels both intimate and yet, like a type, an ideal. What can you tell me about it? Curator: It's fascinating how these "Actresses" cards, distributed with cigarettes, participated in shaping the public image of women during that era. Kinney Brothers weren’t just selling tobacco; they were curating a gallery of desirable female personas for mass consumption. Do you see how her pose and attire contribute to a specific construction of femininity? Editor: Definitely. It’s this soft, romantic image – the draped fabric, her hairstyle...it’s all very deliberate. It almost seems staged. Curator: Precisely. These weren't candid snapshots; they were carefully constructed images meant to align with certain social ideals. The act of collecting these cards and seeing this actress everywhere normalizes an understanding of an ideal "actress" and ideal "woman" at that point. This one appears as if from an old portrait that one might imagine on a Greek vase, and by aligning an "actress" with classic beauty ideals the portrait normalizes seeing beauty through an idealized woman's lens. Have you noticed any details which appear political? Editor: Now that you mention it, it’s difficult to imagine how these could have stirred socio-political ideas at all! I never considered cigarette cards as politically charged. Curator: These cards were quietly doing the cultural work of setting expectations. They promoted an idea of femininity accessible through, oddly enough, the purchase of cigarettes. It shows that marketing isn’t ever just marketing; it actively shapes the world we live in. Editor: It’s incredible to consider the layers embedded within something that seems so simple on the surface. Curator: Exactly. Looking at it through a social lens provides insight on how such pieces had such social influence on how gendered power structures arose in our society. I found this portrait insightful in relation to seeing historical, social expectations arise from advertising and normalized representations of people in everyday products!