A brief history of Valentines Day Cards 

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History
Pre 1400AD
1400AD-1800AD
1800AD to now
Pre-Christian mythology

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Cards
Valentines around the world

References

A Brief History of Cards

Globally speaking a lot of cards are sent on Valentine’s Day, in fact a billion of them, which is second only to Christmas in numbers.

The first mass-produced valentine cards were produced by Esther Howland (1828-1904) of Worcester, Massachusetts. The story goes that, at the age of 19, she received a valentine card from one of her father’s business associates in the UK and thought she could mass produce better ones.

She persuaded her father to order in the supplies and made up a dozen samples which her brother took with him on sales trips. He got 25 times as many orders as she was expecting and recruited friends and family on to her production line.

The commercial, mass-produced valentine card was born.