BY SABRINA EDWARDS ’20
As the winter holiday season approaches, so too does the traditional time of year to exchange greeting cards. Greeting cards and small, handmade missives have been around for centuries.
In the U.S., the invention of the Valentine’s Day card is attributed to Esther Howland, class of 1847. Howland was the first printer on this side of the Atlantic to print complex, lacy Valentine’s Day cards for a commercial market. Many of her cards are held in the College archives as prime examples of the beginning of a multi-million dollar American holiday phenomenon.
However, Valentine’s Day is not the only occasion on which to send cards. This Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa and New Year’s, contemporary families may mail school photos attached to a small letter describing the past year or even a family photo complete with pets and thematic, festive sweaters.
There are lots of this type of greeting card in the Archives as well, including correspondence to, from and about giants in Mount Holyoke history, including Cornelia Clapp, class of 1871, Jeannette Marks and Mary Woolley.
These cards provide a window into not only the religious and social lives of their senders, but also of the time in which they were produced and sent. One notable example of a Christmas card informed by its global context was in the papers of Cornelia Clapp and was produced between 1904-1934. The card has a poem, which reads: “The time has come, the Walrus said, to think of Christmas things; of trees and dolls and cross-stitched towels, of socks and ties and rings. The Carpenter just shook his head and shed a bitter tear. The War’s made such an awful mess, let’s just send love this year.”
Winter isn’t the only time when students of long ago sent cards. One card in the collection from the Cornelia Clapp papers features a leprechaun sitting in a tobacco pipe, with an inscription, “may your pipe dream come true on St. Patrick’s Day.”
These cards are proof that students at Mount Holyoke have always loved sharing their experiences and jokes with loved ones to celebrate holidays, birthdays, special occasions or just a regular day.