Ada Rehan, from World's Beauties, Series 1 (N26) for Allen & Ginter Cigarettes 1888

This image of Ada Rehan was printed by Allen & Ginter, a cigarette company, as a collectible card. The chromolithographic process used to create this card involved layering multiple colors from lithographic stones. Each stone was carefully engraved and printed to build up the final image. The result is a vibrant, mass-produced image of a celebrity intended to drive up sales of tobacco products. While the subject, Ada Rehan, might be seen as embodying artistry, this small card is a product of industrial capitalism. We might consider the labor involved not only in the design and printing of the card, but also in the manufacture of the cigarettes themselves and their packaging and distribution. Looking at this card, we can see how an image of beauty was made into a commodity, blurring the lines between art, industry, and consumer culture.