[Actress wearing cloak with lace details], from the Actors and Actresses series (N145-8) issued by Duke Sons & Co. to promote Duke Cigarettes

Art Historical Context

Step into the glamorous world of late 19th-century celebrity culture with this petite albumen photograph from theActors and Actresses" (N145-8), issued around 1891 by W. Duke, Sons & Co., later part of the American Tobacco Company.itled *[Actress wearing cloak with details]*, it captures a poised actress draped in an elegant cloak adorned with intricate lace, her poised elegance emblematic of the era's theater stars. These cards were savvy marketing tools—inserted into Duke cigarette packs to boost sales and spark collecting fervor among enthusiasts. Printed via the albumen process, which use...

About the Artist

W. Duke, Sons & Co.|American Tobacco Company · 1870–1920

**W. Duke, Sons & Co.: Pioneers of Chromolithographic Trade Card Art** W. Duke, Sons & Co., an American tobacco manufacturer, emerged from the entrepreneurial vision of Washington Duke (1820–1905) and his sons in Durham, North Carolina. After the Civil War, Washington abandoned farming in 1874 to join his eldest son, Brodie L. Duke, in the burgeoning tobacco trade, establishing a factory that for...