P O E T R Y A N D P I C T U R E S I N V I C T O R I A N A N D E D W A R D I A N G R E E T I N G S C A R D S
O N D A Y 1 1 T H J U L Y S A T U R D A Y
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'Forget Me Not: Poetry and Pictures in Victorian and Edwardian Greetings Cards' was an exhibition at the Manchester Poetry Library in 2022 as part of a wider project titled 'Celebrations'. Funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, the project was initiated by Manchester Metropolitan University's Special Collections Museum and the Department of English's Long Nineteenth Century Network. The aim of the project was to make the Laura Seddon Collection of Victorian and Edwardian greetings cards accessible to a wide audience, and to invite new perspectives and descriptions of the cards. This was made possible through digitising some of the collection and hosting various workshops and events to a wide range of communities.
'Celebrations' also explored the changing designs, messages and meanings of greeting cards in the nineteenth century and beyond. Exchanging cards and displaying them in the home was a significant aspect of Victorian and Edwardian culture. During this project, we wanted to find out more about why cards were so important at this time, and what their designs and messages reveal about celebrations, rituals and changing attitudes to family, fashion, religion and bereavement. At a time when the card industry may be in decline, we wanted to reconsider the relevance to our own practices of exchanging cards and greetings in the twenty-first century.
Our partners in the project were Elizabeth Gaskell's House, the Death Café Chorlton and the Manchester Poetry Library, where there have been creative workshops with primary aged children, young adults and over 25s from diverse backgrounds. Other outcomes include inclusive online exhibitions co curated by workshop participants and interns, an academic seminar, a workshop with poet Zaffar Kunial, a project blog, and free exhibitions in Elizabeth Gaskell's House and the Poetry Library.
Award winning poet Zaffar Kunial, author of the collection Us (2018), was invited to Special Collections Museum to view some cards from the Seddon Collection and chat to the Celebrations project team. We wanted to hear more about his insider knowledge of the card industry from his time as a creative writer for Hallmark.
Compared to the cards you have seen in the Laura Seddon collection, do you think the mass production of cards has changed the sort of poetry within them?
"I only had a look at a fraction of this amazing collection you’ve got, they’re a lot more individual I thought. I can see there was more poetic ambition in the couplets and rhymes. It reminded me of how I started off at Hallmark, quite intense writing which possibly works better for poems rather than cards. The general idea is the same, letting someone know they’re being thought of, that seems to be the main thrust behind the cards.
I noticed that the Christmas cards didn’t have a ‘seasonal’ feel to them. Lots of flowers and I noticed there were no Christmas trees. We’ve clearly developed our sense of ‘what Christmas is’, obviously Dickens had a big role in fashioning our idea of Christmas so that was happening around the time these cards were beginning.
I saw the ‘Happy New Year’ cards were sometimes in summer, which makes sense because you’re wishing them a good year ahead, whereas nowadays we seem to wish people happy celebrations of the new year."
The cards in this catalogue are just a small sample of the 32,500 cards in the Laura Seddon collection, which is part of Manchester Metropolitan University's Special Collections Museum.
Greeting cards historically began as a way for people to exchange seasonal greetings and messages with one another. Some seasonal greetings such as New Year's date back to the Romans and Egyptians, yet physical greeting cards only became popular in the nineteenth century.
The Victorian period was a ‘Golden Age’ for greeting cards. Thousands of cards including birthday, Christmas, Valentines, Easter, and mourning cards were exchanged annually, and were used to celebrate and commemorate events, reinforce family ties, convey emotions and make memories. The first commercially made greeting cards were produced in the 1840s, and over time, Christmas cards gradually became the most popular greetings cards to exchange.
While we may think of the Victorians as proper and prudish; many of the cards in the Seddon Collection paint a very different picture. The mean messages and unflattering designs of the 'Vinegar Valentines' present to us a crude side of the Victorians, whilst their Christmas cards of humanised vegetables and animals in clothing reveal a more playful, humorous side.
The Seddon Collection gives us a fascinating glimpse into Victorian and Edwardian lifestyles and attitudesperhaps they were not so different from us after all?
A free exhibition, Forget Me Not explored the relationship between poetry and pictures on greeting cards from the Seddon Collection, published between 1840 and 1920. Ranging from the overly sentimental and sweet, to the bawdy and the surreal, or the cruelty of the ‘Vinegar Valentine’; these cards offer us a whole different view of life during the Victorian and Edwardian era.
Photograph of 'Forget Me Not' at the Manchester Poetry Library Image credits: Mila Januszova
These selected cards include familiar poems and hymns by household names, as well as verses specially written for occasions and holidays. Victorians were used to seeing poems and pictures side by side, and illustrated editions of poetry were very popular during the nineteenth-century.
Photograph of 'Forget Me Not' at the Manchester Poetry Library Image credits: Mila Januszova
Fun, frivolous, and ephemeral paper chains first appeared in Britain as Christmas tree decorations in the 1850s and are a familiar sight in most homes. Usually made from basic coloured paper, I give them a unique take by adding hand embroidery and embellishment.
This artwork is inspired by the mourning cards in the Seddon Collection. While most of the cards in the collection are colourful and decorative, the mourning cards are striking for their stark black and white simplicity, often using just a few words and linear borders. Taking inspiration from the Victorian rules for mourning dress I have chosen to include shades of grey to reflect the longer, more liminal state of grief that I believe most people experience.
Claire is an MA Embroidery student who is fascinated with museums, collections, and archives. She reinterprets old 'things' (objects she feels connected to or inspired by) in new ways by creating artworks that merge traces or glimpses of theoriginal object with her own layers. The materiality and haptic qualities of objects are essential to her.
Claire Batt, MA Design: Embroidery
The exchange of love messages and tokens has been associated with St. Valentine since at least the fifteenth century. In the eighteenth century wouldbe lovers sent tokens in the shape of coins, but also gifts and paper Valentines. Paper Valentines were the forerunners of the commercial Valentine card and were hand made and highly decorated with pictures and verses.
Some were puzzles and some were cleverly folded to hide secret messages. We have come to associate Victorian Valentines with overly ornate designs and sentimental rhyme, but many of the cards in the collection challenge that view. Some of the cards are cut outs in the shape of what were traditional Valentines gifts in the eighteenth century such as gloves, spoons and carved lace bobbins. The relationship of those objects to notions of love and affection is now largely forgotten.
Another little known aspect of Victorian Valentines is the popularity of the "Vinegar Valentine". These were like Valentines only in so far as the sender remained anonymous. These cards were designed to insult and hurt the recipient. They would focus on looks, fashion sense and even occupation. The practice was frowned upon by the respectable media, who viewed the sending of these cards as vulgar and lower class.
In silence I must bear the burthen of my love, I dare not speak else could I tell how I adore thee, But if my tongue be silent, my heart is full of love, And while I live, none else but thee Can dwell wherein time cannot change my love, Now and forever I am thine, Oh be to me a constant Valentine, And share my home and heart, Believe I am sincere love, Yours till death
You think you can sing and play, And that you will startle the world some day! But your 'singing' is like a croaking frog, And your 'playing' would kill a rabid dog.
The rise in popularity of greetings cards in the nineteenth century can be partially explained by their increased affordability in production and in postage costs. 1870 saw the introduction of the halfpenny post, which allowed many on lower incomes to send cards across the country.
The development of a cheap multi colour printing technology, called chromolithography, in the early nineteenth century meant it was possible to mass produce colourful and detailed images at very low cost. Chromolithography also enabled the development of mass produced scraps, small pictures especially made for decorating screens and gluing into scrap books, and which were also used to decorate cards, particularly Valentines.
Developments in manufacturing technologies also meant that items that had previously been handmade were now being mass produced. This included paper lace making and embossing (in which a stamp is made to press a three dimensional shape onto paper). The construction of these cards was done by women in workshops run by the card manufacturers. Cards were assembled using all sorts of materials including feathers, lace, silk, and dried flowers as well as complicated mechanical cards with springs and moving parts.
graceful form, For beauty
in thy fair face, And
lost in
Upon
Most of the artists, illustrators and writers who created work for greetings cards in the nineteenth century remain anonymous. Many were professional commercial artists, employed by the card companies to develop hundreds of designs, and many of these were women.
Card design was a respectable profession for female artists coming out of the new government schools of art. Some women made their name through card design, such as Alice Havers and Emily Whymper.
While some of the work on greetings cards was seen as crude, some art critics saw them as a compelling new art form and wrote articles in the art press praising the artists and new designs as they were published. Card firms capitalised on this interest and organised well publicised competitions for artworks, with very significant amounts of money and contracts awarded.
Some publishers approached established artists and illustrators, to reproduce famous works and to create new ones. These include artists who were very well known at that time, such as Myles Birket Foster and Royal Academicians Herbert Dicksee and William Frederick Yeames. Popular illustrators such as Walter Crane, Kate Greenaway and Beatrix Potter were also commissioned.
Above: Christmas Card (1883)
Publisher: S Hildesheimer & Co 15cm x 12cm Middle: Trade Greeting Card (1879)
Publisher: Prang 14cm x 7.9cm Below: Christmas Card (back of card Above) (1883)
Publisher: S Hildesheimer & Co 15cm x 12cm
The work of 1850-92 Poet Laureate Alfred Tennyson was often a popular choice in Victorian greetings cards. Tennyson's lyric sequence In Memoriam (1833 50) addresses his grief for his deceased friend Arthur Hallam. This was one of Queen Victoria's favourite poems, one in which she found comfort following the loss of her husband, Prince Albert.
Tennyson’s hopeful lines from In Memoriam poem were also used on various Victorian Christmas cards: Rise, happy morn, rise, holy morn, Draw forth the cheerful day from night: O Father, touch the east, and light The light that shone when Hope was born
Rise, happy morn, rise, holy morn, Draw forth the cheerful day from night: O Father, touch the east, and light The light that shone when Hope was born
Many cards within the Seddon collection also include hymns, lyrics and acrostic poetry (where selected letters in the lines of the poem can form another word) by women writers. This includes Adelaide Proctor, Miss Piston, working class poet Eliza Cook, and the Anglican hymn writer Frances Ridley Havergal.
Ward
day
Greeting cards began as a way to send seasonal greetings. The Romans and Egyptians sent New Year Greetings and Valentines were popular from the Middle Ages. Commercially made Christmas cards began in the 1840s.
To an audience today, Christmas and New Year cards from the nineteenth-century can be surprising. Often without holly, Christmas trees, snow or angels, instead many cards from this time depict spring and summer settings. With images of party scenes, flowers and the outdoors, these cards often evoke a sense of warmth and new beginnings. Except for phrases such as 'Christmas greeting', many of the cards look nothing like Christmas cards today.
Christmas Card (front and back) (1866) Publisher: Charles Goodall & Son 7.2cm x 10.2cm
Text: (poem by Alfred Crowquill)
I'm Mr Turkey, come to dine, With your good pudding and your wine, As you can well suppose,
I started off in such a wild haste, For I had not much time to waste, So came without my clothes.
Just hide me in your larder, pray, Or anywhere out of the way, I've pride like all the rest.
You'll soon see all your company Will, with much honour, welcome me, But not till I am dressed.
Above: Christmas Card (1880 85) Publisher: Unknown 17.2cm x 13.5cm
Below: Christmas Card (1876 77) Publisher: Thomas De La Rue 10.4cm x 7cm
Mourning cards were sent to announce deaths in the family, as well as to memorialise public figures and war losses. Their distinctive black and silver borders, and lace designs, became symbolic of the Victorian celebration of death. Popular images include primroses, forget me nots, wreaths and doves, as well as religious iconography, such as weeping angels and crosses also seen in cemeteries. Consolatory verses and psalms celebrate faith and remember the 'dearly beloved' dead.
In 1878 H.B. Worth, author of the collection Stray Leaves (1873), produced a commemorative verse for the death of Princess Alice, Queen Victoria's daughter. His poem about England's 'daughter' winning her place in Heaven, is framed by embossed angels and funereal ivy. The line 'Tis through the tomb the path to glory lies' suggests the belief in the afterlife.
The Seddon collection also contains some 'disaster' cards, with poems memorialising lives lost on the Titanic (1912) and in the 1913 Welsh mining disaster. Twentieth-century mourning cards, for dead soldiers and accidental deaths, hint at the cruelty of mass grief at a time of waning religious belief.
In many of the cards, we may see religious references or symbols. In almost every celebration, there are subtle hints of a religious undertone, from the scene of the nativity to the bible verses used. In the more traditionally religious cards, such as Christmas and Easter, there are more obvious symbols, such as Christ and images of angels. Yet, in less traditionally religious cards like Valentine's, we see that cherubs are very popular, who are known to be associated with love but also as God's attendants. From this, we can see that religion, particularly Christianity, is a prominent aspect of Victorian and Edwardian culture. Many of the cards on display in this exhibition depict some of the more obvious religious imagery. (Lilly Hilton, BA(Hons)Art History)
Mourning Card
Publisher:
Mourning
Publisher:
To celebrate the launch of the Forget Me Not exhibition at Manchester Poetry Library, a poll was created on the library’s Instagram page.
A knock out chart was created with some of the most interesting and unusual cards in the collection, and each Wednesday the cards went head to head for people to vote for their favourite weird and wonderful greeting card. 16 cards were selected for the campaign, with images ranging from a 'kissing certificate' and cats holding tea parties to chefs riding lobsters.
At the end of the campaign, the card which displayed a frog playing a lute was crowned as the winner of the Great Greeting Card Debate.
Image description: An image of a Victorian/Edwardian New Year greeting card from the Seddon Collection, Manchester Metropolitan University Special Collections Museum. The card displays an illustration of a frog wearing a prairie style dress (white with pink flowers and a blue trim), a white ruff, white socks and blue medieval style pointed shoes. The frog is standing upright and playing a lute. Underneath, writing reads ‘A Glad New Year!’.
As demonstrated in 'Forget Me Not' , greetings cards were an important aspect of Victorian and Edwardian material culture. They were often saved and displayed in the home for many years after they were received.
Throughout the duration of the exhibition, members of the public were invited to workshops at the Poetry Library to make their own greeting cards in response to 'Forget Me Not'. Made using imagery inspired by the cards in the Seddon Collection, combined with contemporary materials, the handmade cards were displayed together alongside facsimiles of the original cards.
Image of the exhibition display of the handmade cards made by the public in response to the Seddon Collection. Image credits: Mila Januszova
Images of the exhibition display of the handmade cards made by the public in response to the Seddon Collection. Image credits: Mila Januszova
More examples of the handmade cards made by the public in response to the Seddon Collection. Image credits: Mila Januszova
Another example of the handmade cards made by the public in response to the Seddon Collection. Image credits: Mila Januszova
If I were to be born a new I'd be a bird and fly to you And sig song in every line I'd simply ask you to be mine. If you decline (although I dread) I'll settle for a slice of bread But life in love would be sweet To be with you would be a tweet!
Another example of the handmade cards made by the public in response to the Seddon Collection. Image credits: Mila Januszova
Front and back of a handmade collage greeting card made by a workshop participant in response to the Seddon Collection. Image credits: Mila Januszova
More examples of the handmade cards made by the public in response to the Seddon Collection.
Image credits: Mila Januszova
Another example of the handmade cards made by the public in response to the Seddon Collection. Image credits: Mila Januszova
We would like to thank all of the student interns who have co curated and contributed work to the 'Celebrations' project, the exhibition, and the Long Nineteenth-Century Network blog:
Chloe Burke Claire Batt Kate Hough Lilly Hilton Reema Abdulaziz Muhammed
Many thanks to the Special Collections Museum team, Martin Kratz and the Poetry Library team, and Zaffar Kunial.
Finally, a special thanks to: Stephanie Boydell Rachel Dickinson Emma Liggins Mila Januszova (designer and editor) Rhianwen Williams (co editor)
