vintage holiday postcards

With only four days until Christmas, it’s safe to say we’ve started to send and receive festive cards to and from our family and friends. Regardless of how you celebrate the holiday season, sending cards is a tradition held by many that seems to have persisted in a variety of forms over the years from quaint snow scenes to a photo layout of your best family pictures throughout the past year. Interestingly, the popularity of Christmas cards arose not too long ago in mid-19th century England when the increasing amount of Christmas and New Year’s letters sent through the newly-established “Penny Post” became too much for any one person to respond to! A man by the name of Sir Henry Cole commissioned his artist friend J.C. Horsley to illustrate a family having a holiday meal surrounded by images of people helping the poor - the first Christmas card. After picking up 1000 copies from the printer, Sir Cole sent everyone he knew the illustrated card that included the message “A Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year To You.” A rather clever and efficient way to send holiday greetings when one is overwhelmed with social obligations, I should think! (It was considered very impolite not to respond to any sort of letter in Victorian England, and there is only so much time in the day!)

The two postcards shown here are from the Frazier History Museum’s permanent collection and date to 1900, showing the continuing popularity of illustrated holiday cards at the turn of the century. The Merry Christmas greeting card by American illustrator Ellen Clapsaddle depicts green leaves and white berries (a snowberry, perhaps?) adorning a brass bell with a red ribbon tying it all together. This card seems to represent the celebratory nature of the Christmas holiday, as the bell has been associated with announcing the birth of Jesus in Christian tradition. The New Year greeting card has a similar hopeful and joyful message about the upcoming year being one of plenty, symbolized through the full cornucopia.

We in the Collections Department hope you enjoy viewing these vintage postcards from over a century ago as our holiday greeting to you and reflecting upon the evolution of postcard designs as a longstanding cultural tradition.

Happy Holidays!

Read more about the history of the Christmas card from the Smithsonian

-Hayley Rankin, Manager of Collection Impact

Vintage Merry Christmas Postcard
Ellen Clapsaddle, American illustrator (1865-1934)
c. 1900
Frazier History Museum Collection

Vintage Happy New Year Postcard
1909
Frazier History Museum Collection