“From the Archives” is an opportunity for various writers to visit the Middlebury Special Collections and write about a different artifact each week. The Special Collections boasts hundreds of thousands of historic items, and through this column we encourage writers to explore not only the college’s history, but also the history of the world around us.
In the spirit of Valentine’s Day, the Special Collections team offered a collection of old Valentine’s Day cards that have been acquired throughout history for this week’s “From the Archives.” These cards not only showcase the evolution of Valentine’s Day as a holiday, but also the evolution of love — in families, friendships and romantic relationships.
The first postcard depicts a young boy and a girl together in a cart with a sign saying, “So you need’n take me for a RIDE,” and the card is blank on the back. None of these cards have dates on them, and they were all acquired at different times, but each serves as a time capsule of how people have expressed love throughout history, and what sorts of phrases were used before Hallmark took over with the slightly-kitschy, under-sentimental phrasing and pictures we see on holiday cards today.
Though blank and similar to the first postcard, the second offers a cute message of a butcher (which is also a dog) saying, “It’s no baloney when I say I love you!” The most charming part of the card is that the butcher’s knife moves…
The third card was a bit witchier than the first two, showing a woman with dark hair and a low-cut dress picking hearts out of a box with tweezers. With a background covered in spiderwebs, she is proof that Valentine’s Day can be whatever you want it to be, and perhaps that the current fascination with witchcraft that is gripping many Gen Z-ers is far from new. Again, this card went unaddressed, but it shows both the creativity that goes into card-making just as much as it shows the evolution of the holiday itself. And once again, we find ourselves noticing that perhaps not as much has changed over time as we think.
This final card is much simpler on the front — a hand-drawn heart surrounded by flowers, a slightly more intimate example of what many of us may buy in Kinney Drugs if we forgot to send a card… But the details on the back serve as a greater example of the sentiments of this holiday, which the Special Collections’ examples have made so clear. Above, Eva writes to her sister, “Send me a card once in a while,” using her Valentine’s Day card just to check in. Another Valentine was similarly sent from a family member, as a father wrote to his daughter, “Be good until Saturday,” (only until Saturday, though).
Not one of the Special Collections’ archived cards was from a romantic perspective; they were all from family and friends. And while one can assume many more Valentines were sent between partners and love interests, it brought an element of sincerity to a holiday that has been greatly washed out by commercial candy sales and self-proclaimed haters of Valentine’s Day. But it really isn’t about any of that, and these cards and the people who sent them not only show that this holiday can be for everybody but even more so that love comes in all forms; what a novel concept it is that we could take this holiday and use it to celebrate all of that.
