Lobster, from Fish from American Waters series (N39) for Allen & Ginter Cigarettes 1889

This is "Lobster," a chromolithograph from Allen & Ginter's "Fish from American Waters" series, intended as a collectible insert for cigarette packs. The image presents a curious juxtaposition. Above, a woman gazes wistfully at a distant seascape, a fishing basket by her side. Below, we have a close-up view of a lobster. This little card encapsulates late 19th-century America's complex relationship with its natural resources and burgeoning consumer culture. Cigarette cards like these were immensely popular, reflecting a society increasingly defined by mass production and visual advertising. The series promotes an idealized vision of American maritime life, but through its consumption via tobacco it also underscores the commercialization of leisure. To understand this image more deeply, one might explore archives of advertising ephemera or studies of consumer culture during the Gilded Age. Only then, can we begin to see how such a seemingly simple image is deeply entwined with the social and economic currents of its time.