Card Number 212, Fanny Rice, from the Actors and Actresses series (N145-2) issued by Duke Sons & Co. to promote Cross Cut Cigarettes

Art Historical Context

Step into the vibrant world of19th-century advertising with *Card Number 212, Rice*, a petite albumen photograph from the and Actresses series (145-2), issued by W. Duke, & Co. in the 1880s to their Cross Cut Cigarettes. Measuring just 2 5/8 × 1 7/16 inches, this ephemera captures the poised portrait of actress Fanny Rice, embodying the era's fascination with theater stars. Part of a popular collectible series, these cards were tucked into cigarette packs, sparking a collecting craze among enthusiasts and turning everyday smokers into amateur archivists. The albumen print medium, a hallmark of 19th-century photography, lent these cards their sharp detail and rich sepia tones, derived from egg whites coating paper sensitized with silver salts. Produced inexpensively at scale, they democratized celebrity imagery, blending fine photography with commercial savvy. Housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Drawings and Prints department as part of the Jefferson R. Burdick Collection—a treasure trove of American ephemera gifted in 1948—this piece highlights Duke's innovative marketing amid the Gilded Age's tobacco boom. Culturally, it spotlights women like Rice in vaudeville and stage life, reflecting how actresses became icons of glamour and aspiration. A snapshot of consumer culture's dawn, it invites us to ponder the intersection of art, commerce, and performance in everyday objects.

About the Artist

W. Duke, Sons & Co. · 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...