“My Love’s Offering,” a late nineteenth-century Valentine’s Day card.
The tradition of Valentine’s Day cards in the United States is traced back to Esther Howland, known as the “Mother of the American Valentine.” The daughter of a successful book and stationery store owner in Worcester, Massachusetts, in 1847 she convinced her father to order supplies for her so she could start making the cards. The elaborate creations, featuring embossed and colored paper, and paper lace, were hugely popular, and her business quickly grew with annual revenues eventually reaching $100,000.
In 1879 she merged with another card maker to form the New England Valentine Company, which was bought out two years later by the Whitney Valentine Company.
Our card, found inside a scrapbook, is unmarked, but was produced by one of numerous companies making such novelties by the late 1800s. Advances in printing technologies made it possible for companies to produce attractive full-color cards at a fraction of the cost of Howland’s hand-made creations.