The Valentine's Card

by Kimberly Keagan
February 14, 2024

Valentine's Day, celebrated on February 14th, is a day dedicated to expressing love and affection. One of the most cherished traditions associated with this day is the exchange of Valentine's Day cards. But have you ever wondered how this tradition began?
 
The tradition of sending messages of love and affection on Valentine's Day has ancient roots. Some historians trace it back to the Roman festivals in which young men would draw names of women from a jar, and they would be paired together for the duration of the festival, which often lead to marriage.
 
In the 18th century, printed Valentine's Day cards emerged. The first commercially produced Valentine's Day cards were created in England in the late 1700s. These cards were intricately designed with lace, ribbons, and colorful illustrations, and were often accompanied by sentimental verses.
Valentine's Card circa 1890

The Victorian era saw the mass production of Valentine's Day cards, thanks to advancements in printing technology and improvements in postal services. From the February 14, 1888, edition of The Grand Island Daily Independent, Grand Island, Nebraska:
It is in England and America that St. Valentine’s day is most observed, and on that day the postman’s labors are generally more than doubled by missives which have been sent as an outward sign. The skill and labor required in getting ready for market all those missives, which come under the general head of valentines, is far greater than the majority of people imagine. There are five or six large establishments in the United States whose sole business it is to prepare Christmas, New Year’s Easter and Valentine’s day cards, and they number among their paid list some 10,000 persona, ranging from the packers of the wholesale orders, porters, etc., up to the artists who design the often very beautiful pictures which adorn the cards.
 
The valentine of a few years ago was a cheap and tawdry affair, usually representing hearts transfixed by enormous darts, cupids, and buxom red cheeked girls in impossible gardens, surrounded with lace paper and bearing some doggerel which makes frequent appeal to the muses for the inspiration they seldom had vouchsafed them. From those sill and garish things to the beautiful artistic sense and is also often mounted and prepared in sumptuous style.
 
A handsome valentine is now painted on satin or printed from the lithographic plates of these houses and decorated with delicate silk fringe, tiny bows of ribbon, or perhaps silver or gold cord and tassels. Then they are laid in a box wrapped in soft cotton and sent to the proud recipient.
 

Though today’s Valentines may arrive by text message or email, the heart of the tradition remains unchanged. Whether lavish or simple, handwritten or printed, Valentine’s cards continue to serve the same purpose they have for centuries: a tangible reminder that someone, somewhere, is thinking of you.