Card Number 120, Fay Templeton, from the Actors and Actresses series (N145-2) issued by Duke Sons & Co. to promote Cross Cut Cigarettes 1880s

Editor: Here we have "Card Number 120, Fay Templeton," a promotional card for Cross Cut Cigarettes from the 1880s, now residing at the Met. The subject is giving a coy little glance, all wrapped up in lace! What's your take? Curator: Oh, Fay! It's hard to look at this little piece of ephemera without chuckling at the contrasts—a wisp of a thing selling the deathly serious business of smoking. I see a portrait of societal aspiration packaged for mass consumption, doesn't it just scream Gilded Age to you? Who did they think would buy these things? Editor: So, it's about class? Were these targeted towards a specific demographic? Curator: Indeed! Cigarettes were becoming a cheap thrill, especially as machines began churning them out. Marketing stepped in, using actresses, athletes—figures of aspiration—to glamourize smoking. Think of it as one of the very first instances of influencer marketing, however weird. Editor: It feels incredibly exploitative by today's standards. The photo itself almost feels… voyeuristic. Curator: And the photo credit is W. Duke, Sons & Co., by the way! Spot on. Yes, this image speaks of so much more than just selling tobacco. There's something heartbreakingly candid and transactional about these early forms of advertisement, as if they're revealing a strange truth. But that's enough doom and gloom. We both could use a cigarette now… joking! What I learned from you is seeing how modern that marketing strategy was and the photo credit, both overlooked at first. Editor: Ha! Well, I definitely learned how complex something as seemingly simple as a cigarette card can be! The cultural context really transformed how I view it.