Card Number 155, from the Actors and Actresses series (N145-1) issued by Duke Sons & Co. to promote Cross Cut Cigarettes 1880s

Editor: This is "Card Number 155" from the Actors and Actresses series by W. Duke, Sons & Co. It’s a photograph, dating from the 1880s, printed as a promotional card. It feels so fragile, a fleeting image captured in time. What strikes you most about it? Curator: What jumps out at me is the overt intersection of consumerism and image production. Here, photography isn't fine art, but a tool for selling "Cross Cut Cigarettes." How does the mass production of these cards democratize art, or perhaps cheapen it? Editor: I see what you mean. So, is the focus on the mass-produced image, not the actress depicted, the key here? Does the photograph’s artistic merit even matter? Curator: Exactly! Consider the working conditions of the people who manufactured these cards, versus the actress’s role in that social hierarchy. How does the consumption of cigarettes link to labor practices, artistic representation, and celebrity culture? It's all interwoven in this small rectangle. Editor: I never thought about it like that, seeing the image as part of a bigger network of production. I was so focused on the portrait itself. Curator: The portrait *is* part of it, yes. But to a Materialist, it becomes a record of social relations – the output of an entire chain of industry, not simply an individual representation. It raises interesting questions about the ownership and distribution of images in that era. Who truly profited from these? Editor: It's fascinating to see this image not as art, but as evidence. It changes my understanding of how things were made and consumed. Curator: Precisely. Everyday items like this reveal far more about the era's values than we often give them credit for.