Special
Archives February 2004
The
Mother of American Valentine’s Cards
Miss Esther Howland |
Commercial valentines were introduced in the 1800's but in the US,
Miss Esther Howland of Massachusetts sent the first Valentine card.
A graduate of Mount Holyoke College, she received her first English
valentine in 1847. Fascinated, she imported the necessary paper
lace and floral decorations from England and began taking orders for
valentines. With a demand for more than she could make by herself,
Esther recruited friends to help make the lace and ribbon creations.
She placed her first newspaper on Feb. 5, 1850. The assembly line operation
that began in her home eventually led to a thriving business grossing
$100,000 annually.
The golden age for artistic, sentimental valentines was the period
from 1840-1860. The embossed and perforated lace paper for making
valentines in England was enthusiastically acclaimed, and many were
imported to America. The earliest paper lace developed in England
was copied from handmade real lace, originally embossed by hand, and
later pressed by machinery. It was years before such papers were
produced in America, so Esther Howland created her valentines from the
lace-edged blanks purchased from England.
She made several innovations in valentine design. One was the
small brightly colored wafer of paper placed to give contrast under
the white paper lace; another was the built-up shadow box that became
popular in the latter part of her career.
An American success story, she sold the business and retired in 1881.
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