It's peculiar how one or two short words on a piece of folded card can make us feel better, or put a grin on our face when we are feeling down. The greeting cards industry is big business, and it now appears like there's a card for just about every occasion you can think of, and doubtless even more that you cannot. There are now countless different cards available, it does not seem like way too much of a stretch to think that the greeting card industry essentially made some of those special event days by themselves, in order that they could sell more paper pleasure. All of which misses the question, where and at what point did the card giving convention actually begin?
It's actually believed that a pair of ancient civilizations, the Chinese and the Egyptians, both had a version of what we now view as greeting cards. The Chinese would send messages of good luck to their friends on New Year, while the Egyptians went a little further, writing greetings and sending them on papyrus scrolls. Like many modern traditions, the greeting card next showed up in 15th century Europe, where Germans would deliver by hand, wooden carved messages to each other. In other countries of Europe, Valentine's Day cards became extremely popular, with the first card came into being from the early 1400's.
That sort of exchange just about stayed in place until around 1840. It was then the postage stamp became popular, which meant that sending messages became far simpler, and much more cost-effective than the complicated, hand made greetings of the past. While some of those more ornamental greetings stayed around for several more years, the advent of mass printing, around the same time as the stamp, all but put an end to that form of delivery.
Someone named John Calcott Horsley was commissioned to design the very first Christmas card, which was quickly followed by the first ever official Valentine's Day card, which was first printed by a young woman named Esther Howland. In the USA, much of the credit for publishing greetings cards goes to Louis Prang, who opened his own printing company in Boston in the mid 1850s, and the cards mostly continued to be very popular up until the end of the century when their acceptance fizzled somewhat.
That changed in the 1930s, when advances in printing and color lithography saw greetings cards make a victorious return. The cards evolved further in the 50's, when humorous cards were originally introduced, but the unquestionable explosion came in the 1980s, as that's when the standard birthday, Yuletide, and Valentine's cards were joined by those celebrating some less familiar occasions and events. Greeting cards are still popular to this day, but they have taken yet one more turn, with e-cards now being delivered online, with lots of them custom made by the sender. So long as there are days to celebrate and mourn, there will always be cards with the ideal words for the occasion.
It's actually believed that a pair of ancient civilizations, the Chinese and the Egyptians, both had a version of what we now view as greeting cards. The Chinese would send messages of good luck to their friends on New Year, while the Egyptians went a little further, writing greetings and sending them on papyrus scrolls. Like many modern traditions, the greeting card next showed up in 15th century Europe, where Germans would deliver by hand, wooden carved messages to each other. In other countries of Europe, Valentine's Day cards became extremely popular, with the first card came into being from the early 1400's.
That sort of exchange just about stayed in place until around 1840. It was then the postage stamp became popular, which meant that sending messages became far simpler, and much more cost-effective than the complicated, hand made greetings of the past. While some of those more ornamental greetings stayed around for several more years, the advent of mass printing, around the same time as the stamp, all but put an end to that form of delivery.
Someone named John Calcott Horsley was commissioned to design the very first Christmas card, which was quickly followed by the first ever official Valentine's Day card, which was first printed by a young woman named Esther Howland. In the USA, much of the credit for publishing greetings cards goes to Louis Prang, who opened his own printing company in Boston in the mid 1850s, and the cards mostly continued to be very popular up until the end of the century when their acceptance fizzled somewhat.
That changed in the 1930s, when advances in printing and color lithography saw greetings cards make a victorious return. The cards evolved further in the 50's, when humorous cards were originally introduced, but the unquestionable explosion came in the 1980s, as that's when the standard birthday, Yuletide, and Valentine's cards were joined by those celebrating some less familiar occasions and events. Greeting cards are still popular to this day, but they have taken yet one more turn, with e-cards now being delivered online, with lots of them custom made by the sender. So long as there are days to celebrate and mourn, there will always be cards with the ideal words for the occasion.
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