The History of Greeting Cards
In the digital age, receiving a greeting card bears a renewed weight and importance. For a while it felt interesting and clever to get a digital “e-card” in your email for a holiday or your birthday, but now they feel passe. You might receive dozens of well wishes from friends and family on social media on your birthday — but the quantity doesn’t quite outweigh the special feeling of receiving a real card, chosen for you especially by the person giving it.
All in all, I feel it’s time for a greeting card renaissance. After all, they’re a tradition that has persisted through the ages.
Ancient greetings
People have sent one another written greetings since the invention of paper (and possibly even before!). The ancient Chinese exchanged written messages of good luck and good will for the new year, and ancient Egyptians sent greetings to one another via papyrus scrolls.
But the first greeting cards as we might think of them today date back to the fifteenth century, when Europeans began selling and exchanging handmade cards, including Valentine’s Day cards.
In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, along with the establishment of the Post Office in the United States, mailing greeting cards came into fashion. Once the “penny post” was introduced, and later, the postage stamp, it was easy and affordable for ordinary people to mail letters and greeting cards.
The first mass produced cards
The first Christmas card is recognized as having been designed and printed by John Calcott Horsley for Sir Henry Cole in 1843, and 1,000 copies were sold and sent to friends and family.
By 1860, printers were manufacturing greeting cards in commercial quantities in both the U.S. and Europe. Many were popular visiting cards, which carried sentiments of affection, respect or condolences — and a bent corner on the card assured the receiver of a personal interest from the sender.
European printers, especially German printers, began printing blank art cards in bulk and very inexpensively using new color lithography processes. Printers in America and England couldn’t compete, so they would purchase the blank cards and print the message inside in their own language. From 1900 until World War I, Germany held a near monopoly on printing greeting cards.
After the world wars, Hallmark, which was founded in 1910 in Kansas City, Kansas, emerged in the US as a premier card printer and continues to this day. They were the first to develop humorous cards that went beyond the traditional sentiments.
Current greeting card affairs
The United States is, by far, the largest producer and consumer of greeting cards. Industry estimates put retail sales of greeting cards in the US at nearly $7.5 billion annually. In the UK, shoppers spend nearly a billion pounds a year on greeting cards.
Interestingly, they also estimate that more than three quarters of cards purchased are purchased by women. And they have a huge selection to choose from. In a stationary shop or big box store, a shopper might have more than a thousand different cards to choose from, for every imaginable occasion.
New Zealand made greeting cards
In the US, a greeting card might run anywhere from $2 for a simple card to $6 or $7 for an elaborate design, or musical card.
But here in New Zealand, I was noticing that our wholesale greeting cards, which come to us from Australia, usually via the US or China, have gone up dramatically in price recently, costing as much as $9 retail for a single card!
Being such a fan of letter writing and “snail mail” as I am, I didn’t want the cost of a card to deter anyone from sending their greetings, so I decided to put together a range of greeting cards of our own, initially just to sell at Mrs Blackwell’s Village Bookshop.
Our New Zealand made greeting cards currently retail for $7.50 for the folded card with envelope, and we’ve seen so much interest (and had so much fun designing them) we intend to add more designs. It’s weirdly satisfying to make and sell quality greeting cards, and we’ve had so much interest from other local shops in selling them that we’ve decided to wholesale them more widely. You can apply here for a Blackwell Press account for your shop.
If you’re looking for quality, reasonably priced, made in New Zealand greeting cards, check out our website, visit Mrs Blackwell’s Village Bookshop in Greytown, or look for them in local shops near you!