Though the numbers have declined in recent years, nearly two billion Christmas cards are sent by Americans each year, with the average family receiving around fifteen to twenty cards annually.
Before the first commercially-produced cards, Americans created home-made greetings and delivered them by hand. Distributing cards became even easier with improved mail service and enterprising printers. The history of the published card dates to 1843 when the first card was created and sold in an edition of 1,000 in England by John Callcott Horsley.
Though some Americans obtained imported cards from Great Britain, German native Louis Prang, a lithographer in Boston, produced the first published examples in the United States in 1875. His products grew in popularity over succeeding decades. By the early 1880s, Prang was producing five million cards per year. It was very popular for people to keep some of their cards and paste them on souvenir albums, not unlike modern scrapbooks.
Early cards generally did not feature holiday elements like Santa Claus. Instead, floral designs and those with birds were very popular, as were landscapes of forests, meadows, and areas around homes. Cards featuring angels and other religious symbols, and those with children, were also favorites. Unfortunately, there were also some that employed racist stereotypes that were widespread at the time.
In the late-nineteenth century, Santa became an increasingly dominant presence on cards, and their formats and styles changed. But, more on that in the next post.
The cards shown here are from the 1880s and now part of the Homestead Museum Collection.
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Loved the sentiments on the cards, especially the Lily of the Valley, and sorry they are not available to buy.
Wishing readers every best wish for the new year.