Valentine’s Day Greeting Card, 1856

Next week is Valentine’s Day. It was in the Victorian era that Valentine’s Day greeting cards rose sharply in popularity. It was considered fashionable to collect all the cards received and display them in the parlour for guests to view. Many of the cards were handmade and quite complex with all types of materials being used to make the cards: feathers, beads, fabric, mesh and lace paper. The card pictured above has a small mirror in the middle (slightly tarnished now), little clipped sayings (which were likely purchased in this form to make your cards from – think scrapbooking) and embossed floral and bouquet “scraps” which were practically a must on any card of this time. This particular Valentine was made in 1856, it is part of the Sarah D. Murray collection, which contains a large number of greeting cards from 1800 to early 1900s.