Ever think about the origins of Valentine’s cards?

While the origin of this romantic holiday is a bit mysterious, we do know that a savvy business woman named Esther Howland was responsible for popularizing the giving of Valentine’s cards in the U.S.

After receiving a Valentine’s card created in Europe – which most Americans could not afford  –  the 19-year-old graduate of Mount Holyoke came up with an idea, and persuaded her father to purchase supplies for her from NYC and Europe.

She initially made a dozen samples and sent them out with her brother on his sales mission as he represented their father’s book and stationery company. She targeted $200 in sales (about $6100 in today’s value), but was likely delighted as well as overwhelmed when her brother returned with $5000 in orders (valued at over $150,000 today).

She set about creating a cottage industry production line, offering women the opportunity to earn wages in exchange for their work assembling her designs out of images, ribbons and lace. She also set about developing production boxes so the cards could be constructed by women in their homes and shipped back a week later. Always careful about quality control, she inspected each finished card.

Many of her innovations, such as the layering of lace, the lift-up card, three-dimensional accordion effects, and images that move to reveal a verse, are still in use today.

Before she sold her company in 1880, it was grossing over $100,000 per year, or close to $2.5 million annually in current value.

So here’s to Esther Howland, a business pioneer, and the Mother of the American Valentine.

Wishing you a lovely and memorable Valentine’s Day!

All above images of Esther Howland’s cards used by Creative Commons License  via Wikimedia Commons

Originally published in Beyond the Nest’s newsletter. Click here to sign up to receive Beyond the Nest’s free weekly newsletter of Arts, Culture & Recreation in Greater Rochester and Beyond.