In May 2021, I started processing the Nancy and Henry Rosin collection of valentine, friendship, and devotional ephemera. Assembled by Nancy Rosin, collector and current President of the National Valentine Collectors Association, the collection was donated by the Rosin family to the Huntington Library in 2017. Nancy amassed her extensive collection by acquiring materials over the course of over fifty years and regularly donates more materials to her collection.
Processing the collection has been an interesting research journey. Prior to starting the collection, I was not aware of the various styles and formats of valentines, nor did I know the origins of the holiday itself. Roughly spanning from the 1600s to the 1970s, the collection includes materials crafted with artful methods of production, including printing, paper embossing, cutwork, folding, pinpricking, and more. Found within the collection are puzzle purses, intricate riddles, rebuses, cobweb valentines, love knots, acrostic poems, and more items that document how humans have conveyed private messages to one another creatively in time.
Cobweb valentine by Dobbs Patent, 1819 (left). Lifted view of cobweb valentine by Dobbs Patent, 1819 (right). The Nancy and Henry Rosin collection of valentine, friendship, and devotional ephemera. The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens.
Brief History of Valentines
Handmade valentines appear to date as early as the Middle Ages, but the holiday did not become widespread until the rise of the commercialization of cards produced by stationers in 19th-century England. Stationers such as Joseph Addenbrooke, Dobbs and Co., Thomas De La Rue, Jonathan King, Joseph Mansell, Windsor, and J.T. Wood manufactured valentines that included methods of intricate paper-lace designs and skilled embossing. Many of these artists have works reflected in Nancy Rosin’s collection and demonstrate how valentines in this period became dimensional, with multiple layers, artificial flowers, mirror glass, paper scraps, padded silks, paper hinges, ribbons, engravings, and decorative mottoes to convey romantic messages to viewers.
Across the pond in America, the rise of valentines can largely be attributed to the entrepreneurial efforts of the “Mother of the American Valentine,” Esther Howland. Esther’s father, Southworth Allen (S.A.) Howland owned a stationery shop in Worcester, Massachusetts. Esther came across elaborate and expensive English valentines and decided to design her own version to sell, but at more affordable prices. She created samples of her valentines and asked her brother, a salesman, to show her valentines while on a business trip and see if they would sell. Her designs proved popular as her brother returned with numerous orders. In need of help, Esther recruited her local friends and hired them to aid in assembling her various designs. After setting up shop in her Worcester home, Esther began the start of the New England Valentine Co., a female-led and staffed business, which led to the eventual commercialization of valentines in the United States.
Below is an example of an Esther Howland valentine in the collection. This valentine includes a lithographed image of squirrels, layered beneath intricate paper-lace patterns. Esther purchased paper lace supplies from English manufacturers such as Mullord and Mansell, and would combine colorful lithographs with paper wafers, gilded décor, and pasted mottoes inserted inside the pages of the card. Stylistically, Esther preferred the messages to be private and not placed on the cover of cards like other creators. Esther also understood the importance of branding (her earlier designs were often copied), and to differentiate from others, many of her pieces were marked with a red “H” on the back, sometimes also including the price they retailed for.
Esther Howland valentine, approximately 1840s-1870.
Interior of Esther Howland valentine with motto (left). Reads, “Forget! ‘tis sure the sternest word, that human lips e’er uttered yet, nor is a sound of misery heard, so dire as that one word, forget.” Back of card with the Howland stamp (right). Sold originally for 15 cents. The Nancy and Henry Rosin collection of valentine, friendship, and devotional ephemera. The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens.
Victorian Social Etiquette
Another theme reflected in the materials in this collection is that of the subtle art of flirtation. Everyday objects such as fans, gloves, and parasols were used to send coded messages to individuals during the Victorian age. Numerous pamphlets and booklets were published during this time which detailed the specific methods of holding objects and what each action signified to the viewer.
Examples of booklets and pamphlets on flirting and romance. Titles include The Lover's Almanac, How to Win a Sweetheart or Lover, and The Little Flirt Book.
One stationer who utilized methods of marketing to increase business was the perfumer Eugene Rimmel who not only manufactured perfumes but also advertised his business by distributing lavishly crafted perfumed materials. His golden emblem was found on perfumed items such as sachets, valentines, almanacs, fans, paper gloves, and booklets on the language of flowers. The image below includes an advertisement by Rimmel with a scented paper glove and an accompanying flyer titled “Glove Flirtation.” As stated on the small sheet, tossing your glove up gently at the time indicated that you were engaged, and dropping both gloves indicated that you loved an individual.
Eugene Rimmel, St. Valentine’s Gloves, approximately 1850s-1890s. Glove reads, “Oh! that I were a Glove upon this hand, 'That I might touch that cheek.' Shakespeare.” The Nancy and Henry Rosin collection of valentine, friendship, and devotional ephemera. The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens.
Another method of communicating discreetly for Victorians was through an understanding of the language of flowers. Certain flowers and their colors communicated different coded messages. Flowers that were pink and red, as well as tulips, signified love, while geraniums symbolized mourning, and daisies symbolized innocence. These and more floral attributions were published in small pamphlets that individuals could carry with them while purchasing flowers. Floral significance was also applied physically to valentines, as valentines were often decorated with images of specific flowers intended to convey secret messages to viewers.
Below is an example of a scented valentine created by Rimmel who incorporated the language of flowers into his works with an image of a maiden surrounded by daisies and a brief poem by William Cullen Bryant. It reads, “Innocent maid & snow white flower, well are you paired in your opening hour, thus should the pure and the lovely meet, stainless with stainless, & sweet with sweet.” The item is very delicate with intricately cut paper lace. Rimmel embossed his signature on the lace, and the print on the card is signed by Jules Cheret, a French lithographer whose name is synonymous with the distribution of art nouveau prints during the Belle Époque.
Eugene Rimmel and Jules Chéret. Language of Flowers Valentine Series. Daisy Innocence. The Nancy and Henry Rosin collection of valentine, friendship, and devotional ephemera. The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens.
Vinegar Valentines
While many Victorian stationers sold intricately produced valentines conveying romantic messages, there were also a few creators whose works represented the crueler aspect of human nature. The Victorians bullied one another by sending “vinegar valentines” or “comic valentines” anonymously. The valentines included crudely illustrated images of caricatures and rhyming insults geared toward people’s personalities and habits. Instead of finely crafted lace paper and scrap materials, the comic valentines were produced cheaply, often with woodcut illustrations, typeset verse, and if colored, then done by hand. The cards critiqued individuals who they believed drank too much, gambled, shopped, flirted too much, flirted too little, and even were as specific as targeting individuals’ miscellaneous jobs and methods of driving. To add insult to injury, the recipient of the cruel message would often have to pay the postage fee upon receipt of the message.
An example of a vinegar valentine in Nancy’s collection includes an image of a woman with a large spider on her head and flies for earrings. The valentine reads, “Miss Spider, well you play your part, and spread your snares to catch a heart and those you catch will find that you, possess the spider's venom too.” While this card is unsigned by the creator, many vinegar valentines were often illustrated and signed by artists such as A. Park of London, J.T. Wood, S. Marks & Sons, A.J Fisher, Charles Howard, and retailed by various stationers, a popular one being Raphael Tuck & Sons.
Comic valentine, approximately 1850s-1880s. The Nancy and Henry Rosin collection of valentine, friendship, and devotional ephemera. The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens.
Processing the Collection: Challenges and Helpful Resources
This collection has been a visual treat to work with. The materials document social history and reflect how humans have interacted with one another through time, whether it be by showing love and courtship, forming strong bonds of friendship, mourning loved ones, or even bullying those they disliked. It is remarkable how many different stylistic methods creative individuals designed to allow humans to express their emotions and communicate with one another.
Sorting valentines in mylar sheets.
Perhaps one of the most challenging aspects of processing a collection that is so unique is that I could not find many examples of finding aids with similar collections to use as references for organization and cataloging. While there are many general greeting card collections available at numerous institutions, other than the John Johnson Collection of Printed Ephemera at Oxford, and the Museum of London’s Valentine Collections, not many processed archival valentine collections are available with finding aids online (at least that I was able to find). What continues to be helpful in cataloging and describing the materials are reference publications donated by Nancy Rosin, which include Frank Staff’s The Valentine and Its Origins and Ruth Webb Lee’s A History of Valentines among other publications. Nancy Rosin’s own web resources published on her blog, “A Victorian Treasury” and additional works published online by scholars on the subject have also been a great resource in researching information about the materials.
While processing the materials, I consistently went back and forth on determining how to best organize all of the unique components. While valentines make up the largest portion of the collection, also included are mourning cards, student Rewards of Merit, correspondence with friends and their locks of hair, dance programs, calling cards, songbooks, maps of matrimony, frakturs, scherenschnitte, rebus, Biedermeier-era friendship cards, wedding albums, and more. Some examples of these items are located below.
Biedermeier friendship card, approximately 1840s. Card shows a dog lying down with a bird on its back surrounded by flowers. The Nancy and Henry Rosin collection of valentine, friendship, and devotional ephemera. The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens.
Biedermeier friendship card, approximately 1840s. Card shows a dog sitting on a stool and looking out a window. The Nancy and Henry Rosin collection of valentine, friendship, and devotional ephemera. The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens.
Friendly correspondence with lock of hair, approximately 1840s-1880s. Reads, “A lock of hair, A trifle my dear; But trifles are sweet, If the gift be sincere.” The Nancy and Henry Rosin collection of valentine, friendship, and devotional ephemera. The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens.
When surveying was completed, I organized the contents into six series: Series I. Valentine’s Day; Series II. Manners and Customs; Series III. Artists, printers, and publishers; Series IV. Education; Series V. Artifacts and 3-D objects; and Series VI. Reference Materials. Multiple subseries will be created within these series to list the various formats of materials in the collection.
After wrapping up the survey and processing plan, sorting and processing began (and is still ongoing). Within each series, when creators/printers of the greeting cards can be identified, either via signatures or by other markings, the cards are organized alphabetically by name. When creators are unknown, the materials are organized generally by type, format, style, or grouped visually by the image on the card. Cards that fit in standard mylar sheets and are not made of thicker paper are housed in binders. Cards that are larger, or that are layered with mechanical or dimensional designs are too heavy for mylar sheets in binders, so they are placed in folders either housed in document boxes or flat boxes. Artifacts are carefully stored in boxes with clear lids so that they can be seen without constant handling due to their fragile conditions. Oversize materials will be sorted into their identified series and stored in oversize shelving.
All these examples show just small snippets of all the remarkable materials housed in this estimated 200 linear feet collection. Stay tuned for the completed processing of this collection and the finding aid that is to come!
References
Bodleian Libraries. “Finding aids for the John Johnson Collection.” https://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/collections-and-resources/special-collections/catalogues/johnson/finding-aids
Frank Staff. 1969. The Valentine & Its Origins. New York: Praeger.
Maurice Rickards, Michael Twyman, Sally De Beaumont and Amoret Tanner. 2000. The Encyclopedia of Ephemera: A Guide to the Fragmentary Documents of Everyday Life for the Collector Curator and Historian. New York: Routledge.
Museum of London. “Valentines Cards.” https://collections.museumoflondon.org.uk/online/group/18638.html
Nancy Rosin. “A Victorian Treasury.” http://www.victoriantreasury.com/homeframe.htm
Ruth Webb Lee. 1952. A History of Valentines. New York: Studio Publications in association with Crowell.
Mari Khasmanyan, MLIS, MA, VMS Member-at-Large (2022-2025), Project Archivist – Jay T. Last Collection, The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens, San Marino, California
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