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Valentine’s Day Cards

Her Campus Placeholder Avatar Alana Friedberg
Her Campus Placeholder Avatar Caroline Bagby
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at U Mass Amherst chapter.
Have you ever wondered who created the $3 thick pieces of paper with pictures and romantic words that drug stores designate an entire aisle to? Five College Consortium’s own Ester Howland (1828-1904), often referred to as “The Mother of the American Valentines”, created and popularized Valentine’s Day greeting cards in America in the 1840s. She graduated from Mount Holyoke Seminary, now Mount Holyoke College, in 1847.

Howland received a Valentine from an English friend, which inspired her to design her own. She appointed several girls to help her produce them in her home, and later established the New England Valentine Company, says a Michigan State University library source. The source also states, “Around 1880, when her father took ill, she sold her business to George C. Whitney, who expanded it into a greeting card empire.”

According to History.com, “Approximately 141 million Valentine’s Day cards are exchanged annually, making Valentine’s Day the second most popular card-sending holiday after Christmas.” They also state that women purchase 85% of all Valentine’s cards. All North American countries, the United Kingdom, France, and Australia celebrate the holiday.

So, as you open your card from your special Valentine today, whether it be your boyfriend, bestie, mom or dad, remember: this tradition began right in our back yard!

Happy Valentine’s Day!

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Caroline Bagby is a senior at the University of Massachusetts Amherst majoring in Journalism and minoring in Spanish. She spent her summer interning at Kiss FM for Boston's #1 hit radio show and getting owned by the restaurant where she waited tables. She is now double interning for Her Campus and for ABC40 in Springfield, MA where she is working as a broadcast news intern. Caroline hopes to one day make a name for herself in the production industry. She enjoys spending the money she doesn't have, bubbletinis, watching movies, writing, and surrounding herself with friends and family.