Christmas Card

As popular 19th-century mantelpiece items of the holiday season, American Christmas cards
were created to promote societal ideas and mannerisms through art. A variety of messages
could be interpreted from these chromolithographic prints such as seasonal abundance and
warmth, social obligation, and perhaps even debates on how greeting cards facilitated the
mechanization of human emotions. The creators sought technical perfection in an already
competitive holiday greeting card industry, especially when these items were ideal
conversation starters in social gatherings. This card is alluring for consumers because it features an image of a woman standing on a river front with a landscape in the background. This scene is framed in a border that has the appearance of a boat's interior. Such a display conveys the charm and tenderness of the holiday season.

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.