Most of us know that bubble gum companies once included collectible baseball cards in their packages in order to encourage sales. But did you know that Cuban cigarette manufacturers did something similar over a century ago? In order to sell cigarettes to Cubans still wedded to hand-rolled cigars, Cuba’s earliest cigarette companies began including images of scantily clad and sometimes even bare-breasted women in every box. This collection of cards were once the property of my friend’s chain-smoking great-great-grandpa. It dates from the early 1920s and advertised the company Cigarros Nacionales on the back of every card. Every card also invited smokers to collect all ten series of cards, with each series featuring “100 types” of women. Each card also invited buyers to ask their local tobacco dealer for a “guide to the collection.” Although what qualifies as risqué in these images would hardly be considered so today, these examples reveal how exotic images were far more important than pure “erotica” in the Cuban market. From Mata Hari- and Maria Antoinette-like images to flappers, the standards of beauty reflected here are as diverse as the costumes and adventurous story-lines they implied. As several of the cards explain, the subjects ranged from dancers and actresses to models for expensive French lingerie. Lillian Guerra Collection, Special Collections, University of Florida.
