Mertens, from the Actors and Actresses series (N45, Type 1) for Virginia Brights Cigarettes 1885 - 1891

Curator: Here we have a card from Allen & Ginter's "Actors and Actresses" series, featuring someone identified as Mertens. It dates from between 1885 and 1891 and it’s a rather peculiar form of advertising— a tobacco card made from a print that seems to reproduce a photograph. Editor: My immediate thought is of its physicality: this little sepia rectangle. There’s an odd intimacy to it, given that it was once tucked inside a packet of cigarettes. It also begs the question, was it collected or simply discarded? Curator: Such cards were immensely popular; the imagery speaks volumes. Actresses, athletes— the figures of popular culture offered the smoker a symbolic link to a desirable world. Mertens stands rather rigidly; the column to her side seems to serve as both classical backdrop and crutch. Editor: That tension between artifice and raw material is key. We have a photographic process mimicking painting, mass produced, yet also intended to create an aura of high-class sophistication. I wonder how much labor went into this, from photography to printing, for a fleeting advertising purpose. Curator: And what of Mertens herself? The column next to her bears a classical scene. We see a classical scene, she wears what seems to be fashionable seaside wear; the combination feels rather pointed. It’s interesting that popular performers occupied a space not entirely dissimilar to that of figures from mythology or historical painting. They were objects of both fantasy and consumption. Editor: Exactly. And think about how the cigarettes themselves are materials, objects of desire transformed through industry and the hands of workers—then marketed through this very image of aspiration, tucked away inside a simple paper packet, ultimately destined to be smoked. There's a complete material and social chain there, linking factory floors to public imagination. Curator: The images presented an imagined vision of modern celebrity, intertwined with social status. Allen & Ginter crafted these tiny worlds with intention. It prompts one to reflect upon which actors and actresses became lasting cultural memories, and what exactly they were used for. Editor: In some ways this modest tobacco card embodies so much: The hopes, desires, and industries of a whole historical moment. It may be small, but it resonates loudly.