Vintage Antique Valentine's Day Cards 
Images of Eyes Gallery

[To observe Valentine's Day in 2001, we presented an exhibit of antique Valentine's Day cards.  It appears below.  In 2008, we published a much larger exhibit of Vintage Valentine's Day cards.  The latter exhibit can be found at this link.]

Thanks to Robin Whittle of Heidelberg Heights, a suburb of Melbourne, Australia, for permission to reproduce these wonderful antique Valentine's Day greeting cards.  At Robin's website you can view the same cards in more detail and read his commentary about them.

When you tire of the Valentine's Day cards, go to Robin's homepage where you can choose from Devil Fish, Indian classical music, Robin's recipe for Yum-Yum Gourmet Breakfast Toast, a 7" stick-insect, a verrrry long Slinky, fluorescent people, spanking, why mice should be banned, and Who Is Robin Whittle?, to name just a few. 

Fix some coffee and a donut or a cup of hot tea and a scone and be prepared to stay a while.  Never a dull byte on Robin's website.

The back of this "Valentine Greetings" card shows it was sent to 
Miss Anna E. March of Millersville, Pennsylvania, on Feb 13, 1914

The back of this card shows "Domestic One Cent, Foreign
Two Cents," which indicates it was printed for use in United States.

This "To My Valentine" card has a simple, welcoming design with lots of gold.  
It was sent to Lillie Goshert of Hopeland, Pennsylvania, on Feb 15, 1911.

This card has a stuck-on hot-pink heart with little shards of
very fine broken glass for glitter, and a neat red satin ribbon.

A brief history of St. Valentine's Day

St. Valentine's Day falls on February 14, and is the traditional day on which lovers in certain cultures let each other know about their love, commonly by sending Valentine's cards, which are often anonymous.  The history of Valentine's day can be traced back to an obscure Catholic Church feast day, said to be in honor of Saint Valentine discussed below.

The day is now most closely associated with the mutual exchange of love notes in the form of "valentines."  Modern Valentine symbols include the heart-shaped outline and the figure of the winged Cupid.  Starting in the 19th century, the practice of hand writing notes had largely given way to the exchange of mass-produced greeting cards.  The Greeting Card Association estimates that, world-wide, approximately one billion valentine cards are sent each year, making the day the second largest card-sending holiday of the year behind Christmas.  The association also estimates that women purchase approximately 85 percent of all valentines.

Valentine's Day in the USA

Valentine's Day was probably imported into North America in the 19th century with settlers from Britain.  In the United States, the first mass-produced valentines of embossed paper lace were produced and sold shortly after 1847 by Esther Howland of Worcester, Massachusetts.  Her father operated a large book and stationery store, and she took her inspiration from an English valentine she had received.  (Since 2001, the Greeting Card Association has been giving an annual "Esther Howland Award for a Greeting Card Visionary".)

In the United States in the second half of the 20th century, the practice of exchanging cards was extended to include the giving of all manner of gifts, usually from a man to a woman.  Such gifts typically include roses and chocolates.  Starting in the 1980s, the diamond industry began to promote Valentine's Day as an occasion for giving fine jewelry.

In 1929 due to tensions between gangs in Chicago, members of a gang led by Bugs Moran killed several members of Al Capone gang in what became known as the Saint Valentine's Day Massacre.

The day has come to be associated with a generic platonic greeting of "Happy Valentine's Day."

Valentine's Day in Other Cultures

In Japan and Korea, Valentine's Day has emerged, thanks to a concentrated marketing effort, as a day on which women give candy to men they like.  Rather than being voluntary however, this has become for many women – especially those who work in offices – an obligation, and they give chocolates to all their male co-workers, sometimes at significant personal expense. This chocolate is known as giri-choco, from the words giri (obligation) and choco, a common short version of chokorehto meaning chocolate.

By a further marketing effort, a reciprocal day, called White Day has emerged.  On this day, March 14, men are supposed to return the favor by giving something to those who gave them chocolates on Valentine's Day.  Many men, however, give only to their girlfriends. Originally the return gift was supposed to be white chocolate or marshmallows (hence the name "White Day").  However, more recently men have taken the name to a different meaning, thus lingerie is quite a common gift.

In Korea, there is also an additional Black Day, held on April 14, when males who did not receive anything for Valentine's Day gather together to eat Jajangmyun (Chinese-style noodles in black sauce).

In Chinese Culture, there is a similar counterpart of the Valentine's Day. It is called "The Night of Sevens", on the 7th day of the 7th month of the lunar calendar.  (A slightly different version of this day is celebrated in Japan as Tanabata, on July 7th (the same day, but transcribed to the solar calendar).)

In Brazil, there is no such day as Valentine's Day.  Instead, on June 12, "Dia dos Namorados" (lit. "Day of the enamored", or "Boyfriend's/Girlfriend's Day") is celebrated.  On this day, boyfriends and girlfriends, husbands and wives, exchange gifts (lingerie, chocolates, and more), cards and usually a flower bouquet.  This day is chosen probably because it is one day before the Saint Anthony's day, there known as the marriage saint, when many single women perform popular rituals in order to find a good husband (or, more modernly at least a boyfriend).

History content from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Go to the new 2008 Exhibit of Vintage Valentine's Day Postcards

Page updated Feb 6, 2008

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