Valentine Card

The “sentimental” Valentines of the 19th-century earned their name by frequently featuring Christian symbols, children, animals, and other saccharine images and themes. What made Valentines popular as greeting cards was their ability to convey strong emotions. Therefore, the designs of these Valentine types were meant to captivate an audience that found more wholesome love messages appealing. This card demonstrates the sentimental theme by featuring an ornate border with red roses in the center, a scene that is designed to encourage warm and affectionate feelings.

American Antiquarian Society, “Making Valentines: A Tradition in America,” AAS Online
Exhibits, 2004, https://www.americanantiquarian.org/Exhibitions/Valentines/origins.htm.

Chase, Ernest D., The Romance of Greeting Cards, Rust Craft Publishers, 1956.

Comstock, Helen, ed. The Concise Encyclopedia of American Antiques, Hawthorn Books, Inc.,
1965.

Hix, Lisa, “All You Need Is Paper: Why Antique Valentines Still Melt Modern Hearts,”
Collectors Weekly, 2016, https://www.collectorsweekly.com/articles/all-you-need-is-paper-why-
antique-valentines-still-melt-modern-hearts/.

Hix, Lisa, “Happy Valentine’s Day, I Hate You,” Collectors Weekly, (February 5, 2013),
https://www.collectorsweekly.com/articles/happy-valentines-day-i-hate-you/.

Lee McFarling, Usha, “Won’t You Be My Valentine?” Verso, The Huntington Library (February
13, 2019), https://huntington.org/verso/2019/02/wont-you-be-my-valentine.

Little, Becky, “Nothing Says ‘I Hate You’ Like a ‘Vinegar Valentine,’” Smithsonian Magazine
(February 10, 2017), https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/nothing-says-i-hate-you-vinegar-
valentine-180962109/.

Michelon, Christina, “Touching Sentiment: The Tactility Of Nineteenth-Century Valentines,”
Common Place: the journal of early American life, 2016,
https://commonplace.online/article/touching-sentiment/.

Rosin, Nancy, “Valentines – The Language of Love,” 2001,
http://www.victoriantreasury.com/languageoflove-ephsoc.html.

Shank, Barry, A Token of My Affection: Greeting Cards And American Business Culture,
Columbia University Press, 2004.

“The History of Greeting Cards: The history of greeting cards from their early Chinese and
Egyptian origins to Europe and the U.S.,” Greeting Card Association.

Webb Lee, Ruth, A History Of Valentines, Lee Publications, 1952.