Card Number 165, Kate Uart, from the Actors and Actresses series (N145-2) issued by Duke Sons & Co. to promote Cross Cut Cigarettes 1880s

Curator: Well, look at this! A fascinating snapshot from the 1880s. This is card number 165 in the Actors and Actresses series, part of a larger promotional campaign by W. Duke, Sons & Co. for their Cross Cut Cigarettes. Editor: Wow, cigarettes! Seems so strange to use such… ephemeral things for art. Although it makes you wonder, if it was considered disposable then, what hidden message it could communicate to future generations... Is that Kate Uart? It almost feels like a dream—sepia tones and a star. A glimpse into someone's desire from way back then! Curator: Precisely! The print serves as a mini time capsule, revealing insights into that era’s celebrities and how they shaped its aspirations. Note how the sitter has a fixed gaze that's quite revealing, even if it also seems rather impersonal to our contemporary eyes. This kind of rigid staging was common at the time. Editor: Rigid is a great word for it! And there's something kind of brave too... exposing such personal space for capital. But back to Kate Uart – I get a strong vibe of someone fighting expectations or wanting freedom within what was expected. The way the ad guys say ‘are the best’, maybe there's other things too. Is this medium a drawing or a photograph, though? Curator: It appears to blend mediums; while photographic in origin, the printing techniques used at the time gave it a distinct texture and depth that is almost drawing-like, which falls broadly under the "print" umbrella. It allowed for mass production yet also hinted at bespoke craftsmanship, much like an original lithograph. This speaks of course, to tensions within industrialised forms themselves... mass consumer culture, even in its infancy, understood the potential of such strategies of association. Editor: Ah! Now, considering that it's mass production, and from the 1880's, that fixed look I thought I was seeing would almost seem modern to their eyes? I am seeing that maybe Uart wants a similar feeling or image that is in front of their audience, even? And the 'Cross Cut Cigarettes are the best,' is just... confidence in words too? Curator: Possibly. Through its interplay of representation and mass appeal, this card encapsulates critical issues about commercial culture from well over a century past that still, in many ways, continue to hold today! Editor: Definitely gives you something to chew on, huh? Like an image of a feeling more than Kate or any cigarettes; thanks, capitalism!