Daisy (Chrysanthemum leucanthemum), from the Flowers series for Old Judge Cigarettes 1890

This is 'Daisy' from the Flowers series for Old Judge Cigarettes, produced by Goodwin & Company sometime between 1850 and 1950. It's a small chromolithograph, originally part of a product advertisement. But it’s more than just a pretty picture. These cards reflect the rise of consumer culture and mass marketing. Tobacco companies used these promotional items as a means of establishing brand loyalty. By creating visually appealing and collectible cards they could get people hooked on their product. Think about the social implications of normalizing smoking through colorful illustrations. These cards also tell us about the cultural values of the time, where the beauty of nature was commodified and used to sell a potentially harmful product. To truly understand the power of an image like this, we need to dig into archives. We would want to explore the marketing strategies of the time and learn about the public health debates surrounding smoking.