Esther Howland, Valentine's Day and the Birth of the Card

I’m not a big fan of Valentine’s Day. Don’t get me wrong, I loved it as a kid. Eagerly awaiting the holiday, my classmates and I would each spend the weekend before the magical day carefully crafting and decorating shoe boxes as a receptacle to hold all of our cards. My mom would cut a slit in the top of the lid and then help me wrap the box in thick colored paper. I would cut out paper hearts in red and pink and affix them on top of white paper doilies I had carefully attached to the box with my glue stick. Sometimes I would further decorate by making a heart-shaped stamp out of a starchy Idaho potato dipping the form over and over in thick, messy paint. Then I set out to do my favorite part: make individual cards for all of my friends, and the teacher too.

As time passed on, the meaning of the holiday changed. The target of my affections went from friends and family to boys. So I stopped making cards and never made one again. Even today, I miss the process of creating a hand-made card.

In 1847 a teenager named Esther Howland became memorized when she received her first V-day card from England. It had an elaborate border of lace and decorated with ornate flowers that had been cut-out of paper, colored and pasted on. In the center was a small, pale green envelope containing Valentine's Day sentiments. She showed it to all of her friends and asked her father who owned a book and stationary store in Worcester, Massachusetts to import and sell ones like it in his store.

Then Esther tried making one. She liked it and made more creating nearly a dozen different designs. She sent these prototypes with her brother who a salesman for their father’s company. He made his rounds and returned with over $5000 orders.

From England and New York she ordered colored pictures, lace, silk, satin and ribbon. Then she set up her business in her parents’ home hiring several of her friends. Two years later, Esther Howland was firmly launched in the valentine business. By 1879, The New England Valentine Company was established and eventually grossed $100,000 annually.

Esther never married. Joan P. Kerr wrote in her book The Amorous Art of Esther Howland, that she was remembered as a “woman with high color and glossy chestnut hair”. She drove “high-stepping horses and looked like an aristocrat.” She was good looking and “dressed in fashion and had facials,” Esther understood the importance of sending a Valentine’s Day card to friends so she published a book of verse for her customers who could select one and include it in their card. One example: “May friendship’s constant kiss be thine/From this sweet day of valentine.”

She retired in 1881 to take care off her father and sold the business to George C. Whitney Company who turned the designs out by machines. With the machine age came a decline of quality. By the early 20th century, most valentines were just a folded sheet. And with that, the intricate handmade designs of Esther Howland became a thing of the past.

Images from Worcester Historical Museum.