Happy Valentine’s Day! Tuesday is a special day when we express our affection, usually with cards, candy, flowers, and gifts. This year more than half of the adult population of the U.S. is planning a Valentine celebration. Each year Americans send over 145 million valentine cards.
Those mass-produced valentine cards were the brainchild of Ester Howland, ‘The Mother of the American Valentine.” After receiving a fancy English valentine at the age of 19, she thought she could do better. She set up an assembly line in her parents’ home and hired friends to assemble her designs of lace, silk, ribbon, and embossed cards. Three years later in 1850, this daughter of a Massachusetts stationer founded the New England Valentine Company.
Ester advertised her cards in the local Worchester newspaper and sent samples out with the salesman for the father’s stationary business. She was overwhelmed by the $5000 worth of orders she received. That was quite a few cards at a nickel each. Ester hired local women who could do the piecework at home and others who assembled the parts. They were said to be fairly paid and enjoyed the ‘light pleasant work.’
Ester made valentine cards her life’s work. She designed the cards and inspected each one. She continued to innovate creating much more expensive card accessories like envelopes that could contain locks of hair, secret messages or even engagement rings. She set the standard for valentine cards, verses, and effects still used today, multilayered cards with three dimensional parts that moved, secret compartments and accordion pleated elements. She stamped her company name and the card price on the back of each card.
Ester added Christmas cards, New Year’s cards, Birthday cards, booklets and May baskets to her products and incorporated her company in 1870.
In 1879 she moved her assembly operation to a factory and then merged with a competitor. The same year she published a book of 131 cut-and-paste valentine verses printed in various colors and sizes to be used to improve the message other purchased valentines. By the time she sold her company to care for her ailing father in 1880, it was grossing over $100,00 per year.