Miss Mayne, from the Actors and Actresses series (N145-7) issued by Duke Sons & Co. to promote Duke Cigarettes 1880s

Curator: Immediately, the soft sepia tones create this veil of nostalgia. She’s positioned so deliberately; there’s an almost performative serenity in her gaze. Editor: Indeed. What you’re responding to is partially the intention of W. Duke, Sons & Co., cigarette manufacturers, active in the 1880s, when they produced this card. Titled "Miss Mayne," it comes from a series promoting actors and actresses. It is one example from a set that was issued in the late nineteenth century. Curator: Ah, that's fascinating. So, these weren’t meant as artworks in themselves, but rather as tools of consumer culture, designed to connect fame, celebrity and, well, cigarettes? The pose and her elaborate costume start to make more sense now; there's a carefully constructed ideal on display. And the softness of the photographic process suggests a kind of idealization. Editor: Precisely! Think about it in terms of the burgeoning mass media culture. These cards, cheaply made and widely distributed, helped cultivate the very concept of celebrity that we take for granted today. A stage performer’s image, circulated with tobacco, created new and complex social relationships. It is a fascinating transformation of value, really. Curator: That connects to our relationship to these images today. These photographs, drawings, and prints weren't intended to survive like artifacts, yet here it is. It holds cultural weight as a marker of an era, a symbol of aspiration and how value is attached to imagery. Editor: That’s why the social and political conditions matter so much! The distribution and popularity of the Duke cigarette cards really reflect broader trends of industrialization, marketing and the growth of a star system within popular entertainment of that moment. How appropriate that we find the artwork within the halls of the Metropolitan Museum of Art today! Curator: What a journey from pocket filler to cultural artifact! I see how objects, like images, transform meanings over time. The interplay between the individual portrayed, the corporation promoting, and the wider social impact is indeed fascinating. Editor: Absolutely, and viewing “Miss Mayne” this way allows us to investigate and understand the ever changing status of images and the very fabric of our social experience.