Although the origin of St. Valentine is unclear, the consensus is that he was a Christian martyr who died around 270 AD. According to one legend, he wrote a letter to the daughter of his jailer prior to his death and signed it, “from your Valentine,” leading to the phrase associated with the cards exchanged on his feast day, February 14th. His symbols are roses and two birds, as seen above in this Valentine’s Day card from 1909.
In 1849, Godey’s magazine published an article titled “A New Fashion for Valentines,” that opens with two friends commenting on an expensive commercially made valentine one of them has received. Although the valentine is aesthetically impressive, the recipient of the card is not awed by it and agrees with her friend that she doesn’t “think much of valentines” since she receives so many. The 19th century saw the rise of many technologies that made materials widely and commercially available that were once confined to those who had the specialized skills to create them. In other words, the introduction of mass production did more than change how people earned their wages and kept their houses it also changed how they celebrated holidays with one another. Due to the availability of quality materials, Valentines became easy to create and send and became more elaborate as the years progressed. The technique of embossing paper, a process where rag or wood pulp is pressed between steel plates to shape it into the look of intricate lace, was perfected in England during the first part of the 1800s and embossed paper became a staple of the best commercially available valentines.
The above Valentine was sent from a soldier to his sister on February 14, 1863. The card shows not only the use of embossing on the border, but also lithography and three dimensionality, the latter seen in the open flaps of the tent that extend beyond the frame of the card.
The aim of sending a Valentine was to give the object of one’s affection not only a pretty card to put on display, but also to give them a glimpse of one’s true feelings. How sincere one’s feelings were interpreted to be depended both on the message on the card as much as the look of the card. The text on the Valentine could give an impression of false flattery if it was typed as opposed to handwritten. In the aforementioned Godey’s article, one of the flaws found in the Valentine was that the sentiment on the card was machine printed and not handrwritten. This showed, in the eyes of the woman who received it, that the man who sent the card was not worthy of her affection because “no gentleman of talents would send a Valentine that he did not write…”
Esther Howland, an enterprising woman from Worcester, Massachusetts, began a business selling handmade Valentine cards in 1847 after determining that she could create a better Valentine than the ones being imported from England at the time. Using the finest materials and the help of her friends, Howland’s business grew to make $100,000 annually by the time she retired in 1881.
Although completely handmade Valentines were preferable, it was still acceptable to buy a commercially made card as long as an original sentiment was written in the card. This was, however, easier said than done. Valentines in the Victorian era were not just elaborate postcards—they were, in their truest form, a condensed love letter that showed a side of the sender not shown to the public. Because the written message carried such weight and not everyone is born a poet, those sending Valentines often relied on “familiar phrases that had already demonstrated their ability to convey the most refined and delicate emotions.” These phrases came from books called Valentine Writers that sold for anywhere between 37 cents to 3 dollars and provided not only time-tested verses but also replies to use in response to a Valentine one had received. As the century progressed, many Valentine Writers included specific verses addressed to every manner of career. These were usually peppered with puns and references to the profession, such as this rhyme intended for a butcher:
So nice you dress your Lamb and Veal,
My passion I cannot conceal;
But plainly must declare to you,
I wish that you would dress me too.
When at your shop you take your stand,
Your knife and steel within each hand;
I listen to your pleasing cry,
Which sounds so shrill, d’ye buy, d’ye buy.
Now February shows his face;
And genial Spring comes on apace;
Like birds, ah! prithee let us join,
Upon the day of Valentine.
Not all the verses in the Writers are flattering, however. Some, mostly in the form of a reply, could be quite vicious in their tone and were meant to strongly convey the disapproval of the recipient of the Valentine. For example, a suggested negative response to a grocer who had offered to treat his Valentine to tea was written as follows:
Your letter I’ve weighed,
Am truly afraid,
Many pounds you’re deficient in weight;
And so, Mr. Grocer,
I’d have you to know, Sir,
I care not a fig for your treat.
These kinds of retorts, however, seem tame compared to the genre of cards known as “Vinegar Valentines.” Far from having a loving intent, Vinegar Valentines are mean spirited cards made to “send to annoying neighbors, exacting bosses, harsh schoolmasters, unattractive suitors, and domineering wives.” Serving as a pressure valve in a society with strict rules surrounding etiquette, Vinegar Valentines were sent anonymously. The sender of the valentine could also add insult to injury by sending the card with postage due, putting the recipient in the position of paying for the insult.
This Vinegar Valentine was sent from San Francisco in 1912 and includes the verse “To a Suffragette Valentine: Your vote from me you will not get, I don’t want a preaching suffragette.” Vinegar Valentines were manufactured to suit (and insult) many different trades and personality types.
“St. Valentine,” Catholic Online, accessed February , 2012, http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=159
 “To My Valentine,” last modified September 13, 2007, http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/dgkeysearchdetail.cfm?trg=1&strucID=1065907&imageID=1588482&total=1&e=w&cdonum=0
 Louis Antoine Godey and Sarah Josepha Buell Hale, “A New Fashion for Valentines,” Godey’s Magazine, 38 (1849) http://books.google.com/books?id=BYlMAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA73&dq=Valentine’s+Day+Godey’s+Lady’s+Book&hl=en&sa=X&ei=1rAyT9TXObGQ0QHmtcyNCA&ved=0CGQQ6AEwBg#v=onepage&q=Valentine’s%20Day%20Godey’s%20Lady’s%20Book&f=false
 Nancy Rosin, “The Valentine: a Tribute to Love,” Victoriana Magazine, accessed February 5, 2012, http://www.victoriana.com/VictorianValentine/valentinestributetolove.htm
 Rosin, “The Valentine: a Tribute to Love”
 “A New Fashion for Valentines”
 “Making Valentines: a Tradition in America,” last modified January 25, 2011, http://www.americanantiquarian.org/Exhibitions/Valentines/howland.htm
 Barry Shank, A Token of My Affection: Greeting Cards and American Business Culture (Columbia University Press: 2004), page 31, accessed February 5, 2012, http://books.google.com/books?id=HazsJwux4r4C&pg=PA40&dq=Valentine’s+Day+Godey’s+Lady’s+Book&hl=en&sa=X&ei=HbEyT9GtOcbc0QGtpMT7Bw&ved=0CGAQ6AEwBjgK#v=onepage&q=Valentine’s%20Day%20Godey’s%20Lady’s%20Book&f=false
Shank, A Token of My Affections, page 32
“Valentine Writers,” Victoriana Magazine, accessed February 5, 2012, http://www.victorianamagazine.com/valentinesday/valentinewriter.htm
 “To a Sufragette Valentine,” last modified September 13, 2011, http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/dgkeysearchdetail.cfm?trg=1&strucID=1065910&imageid=1588488&total=1&e=w&cdonum=0
 Shank, A Token of My Affections, page 42
 Shank, A Token of My Affections, page 43