As a special Valentine’s Day treat, our curator of graphic arts, Lauren Hewes, was on Boston’s NPR news station (90.9 WBUR) to talk about Worcester’s own Esther Howland and her valentines. A transcript of “The Mother of the Valentine” is up on WBUR’s website or you can click on the “Listen Now” button to hear [...]
Did you know that the American valentine industry started right here in Worcester in 1848? That America’s first widely mass-produced valentines were designed by a woman named Esther Howland in her workshop on Summer Street? That Victorians ate conversation hearts? That Valentine’s Day greetings were part of a larger cultural debate in early America about [...]
Recent AAS fellow Hugh McIntosh recently spent some time with our Valentines Collection. This collection includes some of the frilly, lovey-dovey valentines one would expect, but also some unexpected gems! The comic valentines of the 19th century in particular caught Hugh’s eye, and he shares the following about his look at the 19th century’s sense [...]
In 2010, the Graphic Arts department will be evaluating and re-housing its collection of nineteenth-century valentines. We have over 3,000 of these lacy, be-flowered paper objects and they are being sorted to provide better access for readers. Due to the high number and complexity of each object (some have moving parts, accompanying envelopes, etc., while [...]
Schoolmarm, 1870
