Vermont, from Flags of the States and Territories (N11) for Allen & Ginter Cigarettes Brands 1888

This small card, made by the Allen & Ginter company, was once packaged with cigarettes. It's printed on paper, using lithography, a process that allowed for mass production of colorful images. The flag of Vermont takes center stage, with a landscape below. This would have been cutting-edge technology at the time, a far cry from the hand-painted originals that came before. You might think of this humble object as part of a much larger story of industrialization. The availability of affordable printed material changed the world, from advertising to education. Suddenly, images could be circulated widely, creating a shared visual culture. Consider the labor involved. Not only in the tobacco fields, but also in the factories that churned out these cards by the thousands. Even something as simple as a cigarette pack becomes a window into the social and economic transformations of the late 19th century, blurring the lines between art, commerce, and everyday life.