Newswise — Every year on February 14, our children exchange them with their school classmates, and we send them to those we love and cherish. But did you know the American tradition of sending valentines originated with a young graduate of Mount Holyoke College?
Each year, the Mount Holyoke Archives and Special Collections displays its collection of valentines in honor of Worcester, Ma., native Esther Howland (1828-1904), a Mount Holyoke alumna credited with having established the commercial valentine industry in the United States. Howland, who graduated from what was then the Mount Holyoke Female Seminary in 1847, was inspired by an ornate English valentine sent to her by a family friend to create her own elaborate renditions of the greeting card.
According to the American Antiquarian Society, Howland was fascinated with the idea of making similar valentines, and she arranged with her father - who owned the largest book and stationery store in Worcester - to have paper lace, floral decorations, and other materials sent to her from England. When she began taking orders for her creations, she quickly found she needed to recruit friends to help her keep up with the demand. She began to advertise in a Worcester paper in early 1850, and she eventually turned the assembly line operation that began in her home into a thriving business grossing $100,000 annually. She retired in 1881 and sold her business to the George C. Whitney Company.
The annual Mount Holyoke exhibit contains a selection of original valentines made by Howland's New England Valentine Co., as well as some by George C. Whitney. These valentines have been paired with photographs from the Seminary's highly decorated, Victorian-style parlors in order to show a connection between the interior spaces these designers inhabited and the aesthetic displayed in their mid- to late-19th-century greeting cards.
The exhibit also features valentines given to the College in the personal papers of former faculty members Mildred Allen and Ruth Lawson. These cards display the stylistic shifts within the valentine industry as it endured paper shortages, postcard crazes, and a growing nostalgia for the Victorian-style cards that characterized the golden age of valentine production in both Western Europe and the United States.
Permission to use images from the collection can be obtained by contacting Mary Jo Curtis at 413-538-2030. For samples, see http://www.mtholyoke.edu/archives/15733.shtml.
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