Card Number 624, Laura Burt, from the Actors and Actresses series (N145-3) issued by Duke Sons & Co. to promote Cross Cut Cigarettes 1880s

Curator: Here we have card number 624, a promotional card produced in the 1880s by W. Duke, Sons & Co. as part of their "Actors and Actresses" series for Cross Cut Cigarettes. It features Laura Burt. Editor: It's such a strange little concoction. A woman with wings, knee-deep in what appears to be choppy water, looking like she's about to scold you for spilling your juice. Curator: Right, these cards were essentially advertisements. But they also became highly collectible. They provide an interesting glimpse into the popular culture and societal values of the time. Editor: "Collectable" is an understatement. It looks like they spared zero expense for what amounts to glorified wallpaper paste packaging, between the hand-tinted photograph and elaborate costumes that evoke something like "Midsummer's wet dream". This image presents a peculiar blend of stagecraft, erotica, and turn-of-the-century anxieties, wrapped into a paper rectangle to entice the Marlboro crowd of its day. Curator: Exactly! Think about it: advertising using female sexuality was already fairly common. Also, notice how such images began circulating right when commercial photography emerged. Before that only the elite had portraits; then suddenly such images began circulating everywhere. Editor: The combination of theater actress and idealized imagery gets me every time. But beyond that, what does her presence—this somewhat bawdy stage fairy who may or may not have lost a bet—what did it *mean* in a world saturated with this stuff? Did it help shape beauty standards or ideas about what woman can aspire to? It has a bizarre poetry about it that begs to be unwrapped, like a puzzle made out of tobacco and whimsy. Curator: Absolutely! They reflect the shifting roles of women in the public sphere, the growth of celebrity culture, and anxieties around mass media, consumption and so on... She became a collectible object herself—her likeness consumed alongside cigarettes. Editor: Cigarettes... and fantasies. It's funny how something so small can carry so much baggage—historical, artistic, maybe even moral baggage—when you really stop to consider it. Curator: I agree. Studying these types of works can give insight into a different era and reveal the links between social phenomena, marketing, and culture. Editor: For me, these types of images always prove one thing: even in small, cheap print media, the weirdness of being human shines through.