hopefully didn't break the bank on Valentine's Day are you still on a
chocolate higher
you get any cards from secret admirers well how about some fun facts about
where the Valentine's Day card came from
I bet you know it started right here in the seat in Massachusetts
so the women were talking about today
is Esther Howland she with class a
1847 at mount holyoke which was then
the Mount Holyoke Female Seminary before with no holy occult
she and received a Valentine from
England a few years after her graduation and with a very fancy them on time Italy
for thing on it and shouldn't fired by it
and her father in Worcester owned
a bookstore and efficiently store
should be able to get supplies and to the able to start making them a long
time for sale
and it's funny because around the time that this all started getting knowing
the president amount higher college at the time kind of put out a warning thing
is you know them a little from Melissa
getting a little out of hand talk about their sure tho
may rely in here with the founder finale a peanut seminary
she was not a big fan Valentine's Day are
exchanging Valentine's thought public I want a bit frivolous
happen not the best thing for these young women young student to be
spending your time and but we do have letter thing which
they mention Ashari in fending valentine said there must have been a little bit I
think layout behind her back
so show them the examples but Esther created and we'll
get into talking more about how our business grew I mean
by now numbers can't even believe it but let's talk about
the quality ever carts very intricate I've noticed the one that brought
they're really beautiful cart so the three here in the front
these are three Esther Howland cards that are part
have their collection at now Ohio colleges archive and you can see that
they're very
an ornate Valentines with lot of hand work done on my own little pieces
an attached very carefully and lots of very careful
paper at least cutting and it's also said
that she was the originator the message
inside a card so when you open it up you'll see a little
methods inside the card and before that
their own hand cart had messages on the outside but not necessarily
on the inside to eat fiftieth and open it up and it a little sweet greeting
on inside the card and I love this last card here at had a special a
back to and I'm afraid to do it some gonna have you do it but
it's almost like a little be high can't recall if the Beehive card because
you put a little strain here it popped up
I could be have shaped and underneath it will keep it hiding their
with the rebellion from flowers that ferri 38 and want these cards are here
it is an affront
how you feel that their than H printed on the back
percent on the back and I don't they all have our just that particular one
that's when have H on the back after her company for
you pound so this idea that she had grew by leaps and bounds and before you knew
it
she had girl or she was employing different when it
different women girls and I love how they
they look today at like a production like an assembly line
important in foreign report before Henry Ford came
about talk about how she really turn this into an amazing business sure
so she employed as a young girl's friend family members from Worcester
and they worked at her home and they would setup
like it like an assembly line so each girl is in a row
and family being with a putting one little tiny pieces are on in the next
person to the next piece on
that about how the fam build-down family line
and with one person doing all the work with our shared
and with much faster that way and though they were able to make more now on time
and film around time
and grow the me think that's left now people historians love to point out that
this woman basically the car the mother the Valentine's Day cards
she herself though was never married and never had a family yet
she must still have that soft spot for romance in her heart
but it seems even if she didn't have a family this
kinda became her family kids getting as she had
brother the thrift but she I had she
developed this as a businesswoman if an entreprenuer and did an amazing job
building up
the company and add by the time she spent with all that but I'm people with
making about a hundred thousand dollars a year
and he sold in 1881 so that
it matter that picket my money today for small business owner and
family in 1880 that would have been a very good at a good amount of money to
talk about the transformation and the Valentine's Day cards as we get further
along this fine over here in the back
is much more recent especially compared to the ones up front
but it's almost as if they still have some the scene
I guess you kinda put at least touch that very romantic
touchdown tense a card in seems to have continued
with me other Valentine in our collection not just Esther Howland
and other people and do any announcement over the years
and that's one to put a pic this one is from the nineteen sixties actually
and have a lot in common in some way it with Esther Howland 1
but here Bay and there some details that are a bit different with printed lathem
data original have hand cut lace there but it's still very pretty
it found that the keep in the flowers and I have the full
paper puppets well there third it's very elaborate but
I would have been left time consuming less expand they met and to make many
fun
the people must be surprised to know that Western Mass has a very
romantic soft spot in the book that history an
but that's incredible and I guess
if you had to say
I wouldn't say that she's probably the most significant moment to come from
Mount Holyoke but
orkut impact you think that this one woman from Mount Holyoke
on well back at his condo Holyoke Female Seminary
could impacted she have on really have now because the contents a card
been industry is a multi-billion dollar industry this is
huge well I think she is very much a role model
offensive being a female business owner and we think if her in the early 1840s
18 eighties and what it would have been like to be a woman owning the
business on her own at that time period and that's something
and part of our history to look back and to take great pride from
and to theater the great example for what women can do today as well
another like an example be on the romance and the frills and thrills for
a Valentine's Day it kind of sets a good example for females nowadays
and get that very great thank you so much for your time lately
thank you but sleepy head