I saw a tweet today from Terran Birrell today who was expressing pride in his girlfriend’s contribution to a display of vintage valentines at Mount Holyoke and was sharing a link to a Republican story about the display. His girlfriend, Lori, also has a post on the subject.
Upon reading the Republican’s story I discovered that valentines in America hit their heyday in the late 1800’s when a woman named Esther Howland received an English valentine that was very elaborate with lace and ribbon trimmings. Esther, a native of Worcester and a graduate of Mount Holyoke College, then decided to embark upon making her own elaborate valentine cards. This turned into a full scale operation with reported income in the $75,000 to $100,000 mark, which for that time was quite a lot of money!
I hadn’t realized that Western Massachusetts had such a place in the history of the Valentine greeting. My research brought me to remembering back to the mid 1990’s when my grandmother passed away. I took responsibility for cleaning out her room and in doing so, discovered a large box containing decades worth of fancy and expensive valentine cards.
My grandfather was very much the romantic and this box contained beautiful symbols of his romantic love for my grandmother dating back to the 1920’s.
I don’t know where those valentines are now, I imagine my mom must have them in storage somewhere, but they were definitely the type that Esther Howland would have been proud of.
Happy Valentine’s Day Western Massachusetts, I hope you have a fabulous day and that you too receive a romantic and elaborate valentine greeting from someone that loves you!
