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MY LIFELONG OBSESSION WITH VINTAGE GREETING CARDS
* Posted by:
* Jenna Girard on 29th Jun
Pouring over greeting cards with Great-Grandma.
Photo: Jenna Girard
It all began in the mid-1970s when I was five or six years old. After visiting
my grandma and grandpa, playing with their poodle, and exploring their old
house, I was taken down the street begrudgingly to hang with my
great-grandmother. To my young eyes, she looked over one hundred years old and
kind of scared me. Apart from raiding her bread box for strawberry wafer
cookies, it was not a good time—THAT IS until the day she broke out a basket
filled with her own greeting cards from decades past. Each visit after that, I
sat on her lap, and we poured over the same cards from the last visit as if they
were brand new. I never forgot the beautiful graphics and how excited I was each
time she read the inscriptions to me.
AND SO, IT BEGAN
Fast forward twenty years. My great-grandmother had long ago passed, and my
interest in vintage greeting cards grew dormant, to say the least. In the late
1990s, I moved to Los Angeles to pursue a showbiz career and found myself
attending weekly flea markets in the greater SoCal area. It was at these sunny
bazaars that I found a stack of old greeting cards from the 1940s and 1950s. I
was instantly hooked, buying a handful to peruse at home. It all came back to
me. The wonderful vintage graphics that entranced me as a child still struck me.
They were literally little works of art drawn in decade-distinctive styles.
By the early 2000s, I had discovered eBay, which fed the greeting card beast in
ways nothing else had. Soon, I had hundreds of cards. I was forced to whittle
down the subject matter to my most desired art: mermaids/sea life, poodles,
pixies, mid-century ladies in fancy dress, Hawaiian/tiki, bon voyage, Christmas
trees, Halloween, and anthropomorphic fruits and veggies. By the 2020s, I had
thousands of cards—so many that I sold boxes of them to fellow collectors. My
remaining cards were sorted into boxes by topic, displayed on actual greeting
card racks, or framed on the wall.
A small sample of the author’s vintage greeting card collection, displayed on
racks for all to enjoy—particularly her young nieces and nephews.
Photo: Jenna Girard
I am but one collector in a sea of vintage card fanatics—all of them trying to
outbid the other for the best mid-century cards on eBay. If not greeting cards,
vintage valentines strike the collective fancy. In these days of digital photo
albums, e-cards, and Facebook posts, there is a sentimental need for simple,
tangible touchstones. Who among us didn’t perk up when a birthday card arrived
in the mail or struggled to mail everyone on our list a Christmas card each
year?
HALLMARK MOMENTS IN HISTORY
Historically, the custom of sending cards hails back to the early Egyptians, who
wrote their greetings on papyrus scrolls. By the 15th century, Europeans began
sending handmade greetings on paper. Elaborate valentines—although invented in
the 15th–16th centuries—became all the rage in the Victorian era. By the
mid-to-late 1800s, companies like Marcus Ward & Co. and Charles Goodall & Son
began mass-manufacturing cards that featured artwork by respected artists of the
day. However, it was not until the 1920s and 1930s that folded greeting cards as
we know them today took shape.
By the 1940s, companies like Hallmark, American Greetings, Norcross, Gibson,
Forget-Me-Not, Admiral, and Rust Craft mass-produced greeting cards. People
could find them at dime stores, pharmacies, and grocery stores. Every
conceivable event warranted a greeting card—even a family taking a trip! Called
“Bon Voyage” cards, they wished the traveler good luck on their journey. Other
events represented included new baby, graduation, Mother’s Day and Father’s Day,
sympathy, anniversary, get well, thinking of you, thank you, and more.
A fun comic-in-action mechanical card featuring an anthropomorphic hippo.
The most popular greeting card of all time wished its recipient a happy
birthday. In fact, birthday cards still account for 50 percent of all card
sales. Sure, you could just post on Facebook in thirty seconds, but sending a
personally selected birthday card through the mail still holds sentimental
charm. Age-specific cards remain particularly desirable, as do adult humor.
SEASON’S GREETINGS
The Christmas card exchange tradition originated in London in 1843 when
high-society gentleman Henry Cole commissioned the first Christmas card with a
blank interior to send to his friends and family. The novel idea took hold,
leading to the manufacturing of Christmas card box sets by the turn of the
century.
From the beginning, popular cover subjects were Santa Claus and his elves,
Christmas trees, baby Jesus in the manger, carolers, reindeer, churches,
decorated homes, toys, and candy. People still send Christmas cards, resulting
in a fun search for the perfect box each winter.
A 1940s Hallmark Christmas card “from our house to yours.”
HOW TO START YOUR OWN GREETING CARD COLLECTION
The first and most important thing to do when starting a greeting card
collection is to figure out what topics and graphics appeal to you. Collecting
every vintage card becomes expensive and takes up too much room. It would be
best if you narrowed your focus.
Buy them in lots if possible. Among the most desirable art/graphics currently
sold on eBay and Etsy are mermaids, mid-century glamour girls, animals
(especially poodles and Siamese cats), circus scenes, space travel, cowboys,
Black Americana, mid-century homes, and 1950s Halloween. Prices range from $1 to
over $100, but the average price is under $10—about the same as today’s
store-bought cards. Millions of cards were produced during the 20th century,
providing seemingly endless options for a new collector.
Flea markets and online sellers are the best places to locate the desirable
ephemera. For me, estate sales are particularly fruitful hunting grounds—and
they are a sentimental reminder that someone else’s grandmother also saved her
greeting cards.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jenna Girard has been a freelance writer and copy editor for over 25 years, with
a focus on feature writing. A lifelong collector of antiques and collectibles,
Jenna has amassed a remarkable collection of entertainment ephemera, vintage
fabrics, head vases, and mid-century art and home décor. After 16 years of
living in Los Angeles and working in the entertainment industry, Jenna now
resides in her home state of Michigan, where she continues to write/copy edit
for LA-based media outlets.
WorthPoint—Discover. Value. Preserve.
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