Earnest or playful, that Valentine's card has a history
It was Valentine's Day 1917 in the Minnesota farming village of Lewiston, and Fred Roth -- a fourth grader -- seems to have come up with just the way to express his love for his sweetheart, Louise Wirt. He gave her a card.
The folding, pop-up Valentine's Day card, on stock so heavy it remains in good shape 106 years later, reads: "Forget me not!/I ask of thee/Reserve one spot/In your heart for me."
And so she did. Years later they married, and Louise displayed the cherished card, tucked into the fretwork of a bedroom dresser, for decades to come. She pointed it out to her daughter, and later to a granddaughter, me, and it remained near her bedside until her death at 91, a token of lasting love.
Although the message was in English, the card is printed with the word "Germany" and is seemingly imported, as were many cards of that era. Small companies in the U.S. also were part of a flourishing commercial card business.
Hallmark, which arrived on the scene in 1916, estimates that today, 145 million Valentine's Day cards are exchanged annually, not including the kids' valentines popular for classroom exchanges.
Fertility-related customs and rituals have been celebrated in mid-February since pagan times, says Emelie Gevalt, curator of folk art and curatorial chair for collections at the American Folk Art Museum in New York City.
Tokens of affection varied: In the 1600s, the practice was to give pairs of gloves in mid-February, she says.
"By the 18th century, we start to see something that really begins to resemble modern Valentine's cards," she says. "In the 19th century, this evolved further to the point where popular ladies' magazines like Harper's Weekly published instructions for readers on how to craft them."
There have long been both earnest, heartfelt Valentines like Grandpa Fred's, and ones in a more teasing, playful vein.
The museum's collection includes several lovingly crafted tokens of affection from various periods. "You see the heart motif quite a lot," Gevalt says.
Although not specifically linked to Valentine's Day, an exhibit at the museum opening March 17, "Material Witness: Folk and Self-Taught Artists at Work," features two examples of "fraktur," exuberantly decorated watercolours made by German immigrants in Pennsylvania. One is called "Inverted Heart," and another depicts a labyrinth.
"They were really dazzling objects, including motifs of flowers or hearts. The playfulness and cleverness of these objects is one of the most interesting aspects they have in common," Gevalt says.
In the mid-19th century, some people shared "Vinegar Valentines," a sort of anti-Valentine that featured playfully insulting verses, not unlike a modern-day roast.
Sometimes, cards involved writing in a circle or upside down, like a puzzle. Some had a decorative folded border or verses on the folds; cutwork resembling lace; or watercolour decorations of pierced hearts, lovebirds and flowers. Lover's knots and labyrinths were also common elements.
"They remind me of games, like plucking the petals of a flower saying `she loves me, she loves me not,"' Gevalt says.
The boom in commercial Valentine's Day cards in the mid-1800s was a reflection of changing courtship patterns, says Elizabeth White Nelson, associate professor of history at University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
"The idea of companionate marriage and love became a part of the calculus of marriage, and Valentine's Day cards became a part of courtship," she says.
These days, the cards continue to evolve.
"Over the last few years, trends have been less about romantic love but more about letting someone know they matter," says Jen Walker, vice president of trends and creative studios at Hallmark Cards, Inc.
There are "more inclusive visuals, and a larger representation of relationships -- love, chosen family, friendships, parents and children, self-care," she says.
A bit of mystery surrounds my Grandma Louise's precious Valentine. It would have been out of character for Fred to buy a commercial card as opposed to, say, presenting her with a bouquet of pussy willows he had picked.
"That period would have been the beginning of an organized practice of exchanging Valentines in school," says Nelson. In some classrooms, everyone was required, or at least encouraged, to give a Valentine.
"The giving and receiving of Valentines was always partly about performing love, for an audience," says Nelson, "and once that Valentine's Day card got saved, it would have become a talisman of all that love is supposed to be."
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
BREAKING | 4 people stabbed at Halifax-area high school; 1 person in custody
Police in Halifax say four people have been stabbed and a student is in custody following a weapons complaint at a high school in Bedford, N.S.

W5 Investigates | How did a healthy teen die at a minor hockey camp?
The parents of young Ontario hockey player Ben Teague have been searching for answers since he died while at a team retreat in 2019. The mystery about what happened and the code of silence in hockey culture is explored in CTV W5's 'What Happened to Ben,' on CTVNews.ca and W5's official YouTube channel.
Conservatives forcing MPs to vote on striking new foreign interference study
In an effort to keep the foreign interference story at the forefront, and to do an apparent endrun around the Liberal filibuster blocking one study from going ahead, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is forcing MPs to debate and then vote on a motion instructing an opposition-dominated House committee to strike its own review.
Amazon to lay off 9,000 employees on top of 18,000 in January
Amazon plans to eliminate 9,000 more jobs in the next few weeks, CEO Andy Jassy said in a memo to staff on Monday.
Donald Trump's call for protests gets muted reaction by supporters
Former U.S. President Donald Trump's calls for protests ahead of his anticipated indictment in New York have generated mostly muted reactions from supporters, with even some of his most ardent loyalists dismissing the idea as a waste of time or a law enforcement trap.
LIVE @ 11:30 A.M. | 6 still missing after Old Montreal fire; Mayor to address media
Officials are still looking for victims after a fire ripped through a building in Old Montreal last week, killing at least one person. At a press conference Monday morning, spokespersons for the Montreal police and Montreal fire department said six people are still missing. They come from various locations in Quebec, Ontario and the U.S.
opinion | Biden's Canada visit is long overdue, expert says
Questions abound as to why U.S. President Biden is only now making the visit to Canada, more than two years into his presidency.
Canada's among central banks try to calm markets after UBS deal to buy Credit Suisse
Some of the world's largest central banks came together on Sunday to stop a banking crisis from spreading as Swiss authorities persuaded UBS Group AG to buy rival Credit Suisse Group AG in a historic deal.
Ontario court permits Nordstrom Canada to liquidate closing stores
Bargain hunters are one step closer to seeing sales at Nordstrom's closing Canadian locations. At a hearing at Osgoode Hall in Toronto on Monday, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice gave the U.S. retailer's Canadian branch permission to start liquidating its merchandise.