Had to "put my oar in" my Valentine
February 14, 2015 7:49 AM   Subscribe

Valentine's Day Cards of the Late 1800's and Early 1900's (Tillie's Antique Chatter)
A Flowering of Affection: Victorian Valentines Day Cards at the Lilly Library (Indiana University Libraries, Bloomington)
History of the Card
Victorian Valentine's Day Cards - in Pictures (The Guardian, from The Laura Seddon Collection held by Manchester Metropolitan University’s Special Collections)
A Victorian Treasury's piece on Esther Howland (1828-1904), Mother of the American Valentine
National Valentine Collectors Association
An antidote for saccharine: Vinegar Valentines (Pinterest)
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome (7 comments total) 10 users marked this as a favorite
 


More on vinegar Valentines at Collector's Weekly: Happy Valentine's Day, I Hate You:
You have to remember that often they were sent anonymously. They were to say “Your behavior is unacceptable.” [...]

The people sending such cards were usually not either one of the couple. It wasn’t the wife sending to the husband or the husband sending to the wife. It was somebody outside, looking in at their relationship and saying, “This doesn’t conform with what’s expected.” In that way, they did enforce social norms. Sometimes they seemed to be saying, “Change your behavior, or else.” There’s almost this threatening element to them.
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 8:23 AM on February 14, 2015 [3 favorites]


I will give you all my spiders
posted by The Whelk at 8:24 AM on February 14, 2015 [6 favorites]


Embrace the puns.
posted by Fizz at 9:38 AM on February 14, 2015


My favorite in the IU collection: Well! You are a nice little Duck.
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 9:42 AM on February 14, 2015 [2 favorites]


I'll be sunk.
posted by idiopath at 9:48 AM on February 14, 2015 [1 favorite]


My first reaction. To the first link was that I can't shake the creepy feeling about old.valentine cards ever since seeing picnic at hanging rock, but then I looked at the vinegar valentines and the I'm sunk link from idiopath. Now I think they were creepy all along.
Great post!!
posted by chapps at 1:43 PM on February 14, 2015


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