1906 - Origin of the U.S. Valentine

Miss Esther A. Howland of Worcester, Mass., was the first person in this country to manufacture valentines. Before she began in 1840, all these missives were imported. Miss Howland was a graduate of Mount Holyoke seminary, and after she left school she took scissors, paste pot, colored pictures and paper and began at first to make imitations of the valentines which her father, a stationer, imported. She sent some samples of her work to Boston and New York. They were sold immediately, and a large number of others was ordered. That was the beginning of her trade, and from that time on till she died, some months ago, she had all the orders she could fill. She became very well to do.