It's Valentine Time!
What's It Wednesday
It’s Valentine Time
ACHC #1987.598.2071
Often referred to as a Hallmark holiday, one that exists purely for commercial purposes, Valentine’s Day and the practice of sending cards, predates Hallmark.
The first written reference to Feb 14th as a time for sharing one’s love, appears in Chaucer’s poem, The Parlement of Foules, written 1381-83. In it he ties courtly love to the celebration of St. Valentine and refers to February 14th as a day when birds and humans both go in search of mates.
The oldest printed valentine is a hand-colored card printed in London in 1797, and features cupids, doves, flowers, and a lace-like design made by piercings in the paper.
Printing made valentines affordable and more accessible to the general public. In Britain, the introduction of the penny post made mailing them less expensive too. In 1835, about 60,000 Valentine’s Day cards were mailed. By 1840, more than 400,000 cards were sent.
The Victorian Period was a time of elegant, ornate, and flowery decoration. Valentine cards featured lace, elaborate designs, colored images, and cut paper to create layers and windows that revealed messages.
ACHC #2005.040.8
Interior of card - "Remember Me - wher'er I go, what ever lands I see, My heart, untrammeled, fondly turns to thee."
Up to this time, valentines were mostly popular in Britain and Europe. London Printers and Germany companies supplied the market with valentine cards.
Enter Esther Howland. Esther Howland lived in Worcester, MA and is referred to as the Mother of the American Valentine. She was an 1847 graduate of Mount Holyoke (then called The Mount Holyoke Female Seminary) and her father owned the largest stationery shop in Worcester. In 1849, Esther designed a series of Valentines Day cards based on one that she had received from a friend in England. Her cards used paper cut-outs and illustrations imported from Europe through her father’s stationery business. They were hand-assembled by local women.
The cards were unique – not like anything else that was being printed in the U.S. At the peak, Howland’s cards were distributed throughout the U.S. and she was selling $100,000 in Valentine’s Day cards in one year.
Howland’s business became known as the New England Valentine Company. It remained a home-based business until the mid-1870s. In 1881, it was purchased by another Worcester card company run by George Whitney who became the largest and oldest manufacturer of valentines in the world.
ACHC #1988.052.2
In the years just prior to and after 1900, valentine cards became more elaborate with fringes, silk cords, tassels or ribbons and paper layers. Some cards were so large that they had to be mailed in a box.
Also in the early 1900’s, Germany began to produce valentines that were ‘mechanical’ with jointed characters or that would fold out into 3-dimensional scenes or hang.
ACHC #1982.013.1
What about Hallmark? They sold their first valentine in 1913. It was a postcard design purchased from another company. In 1916, the company began making their own Valentine’s Day card designs.
Today, the Valentine’s Day card business is booming. Now, cards are exchanged by mail but also in classrooms and digitally. With 190 million Valentine’s cards are sold annually in the US, it is the second most popular “card” holiday.
However you spend it, I hope you have a Happy Valentine’s Day.