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STORY: Valentine's Day cards go back almost to the holiday's earliest origins. In one of the versions of the original St. Valentine legend, an early priest named Valentinus had the reputation for performing secret Christian marriages (forbidden by Emperor Claudis II of the Goth). Valentinus was thrown into prison, where he healed a guard's daughter's blindness through prayer. It is believed that St. Valentine and the young woman he healed fell deeply in love. (Priests weren't yet required to stay celibate.) Before his execution on Feb. 14, 270 AD, Valentinus reportedly sent the girl a final love note signed "Your Valentine."According to the site Valentine Be Mine, "A young Frenchman, Charles, Duke of Orleans, was one of the earliest creators of valentines, called 'poetical or amorous addresses.' From his confinement in the Tower of London after the Battle of Agincourt in 1415, he sent several poems or rhymed love letters or 'valentines' to his wife in France." The valentine tradition quickly caught on throughout Britain. During the fifteenth century, one valentine showed a drawing of a knight and a lady, with Cupid sending an arrow to pierce the knight's heart. During the seventeenth century, people made their own valentines using original verses or poems copied from booklets. These booklets, or "writers," contained many verses and messages that could be copied onto gilt-edged letter paper or other decorative sheets. One popular writer contained not only "be my valentine" verses for men to send, but also "answer" verses that women could return. The 1800s Industrial Revolution brought mass-production printing technology. Valentines contained delicate and artistic messages and symbols such as cherubs, cupids, hearts and flowers. Children started making Valentine scrapbooks with lacy doilies and printed pictures. Around 1830 Esther A. Howland in Worcester, Mass. produced one of the first commercial American valentines. She used imported lace, fine papers, and other supplies, eventually selling about $100,000 worth a year. |
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