George Washington's Birthday, United States, from the Holidays series (N80) for Duke brand cigarettes 1890

"George Washington's Birthday, United States" was made around 1888 by W. Duke, Sons & Co. as part of a series of cigarette cards. This small chromolithograph reveals much about the cultural values of the late 19th century. These were the decades after the Civil War, when the Lost Cause ideology attempted to sanitize the role of slavery in the Confederate states. Here, we see a white woman—an allegory for the nation—adorning a bust of George Washington with greenery. He was a slave owner, of course. This iconography suggests a desire to unify the nation under the banner of a mythologized, white, male, founding father. The choice of a woman to symbolize the U.S. speaks to the gendered roles of the time, where women were often used to embody abstract concepts like liberty or virtue. It serves as a reminder of whose stories get told, and whose are left out. Ultimately, this cigarette card offers a glimpse into the complex, often contradictory, narratives that shape a nation's identity.