wfn.org | Oldest mass-produced Christmas card part of SMU library

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collection

Dec. 1, 1998	Contact: Thomas S. McAnally (615)742-5470 Nashville,
Tenn.     {702}

NOTE:  A photograph is available with this story.

by Gary Shultz*

DALLAS (UMNS) - What is believed to be one of the first mass-produced
Christmas cards - dating back more than 150 years - can be found among
the extensive special collections of Bridwell Library at Southern
Methodist University's Perkins School of Theology.

The lithographed card caused a controversy in some quarters of Victorian
English society when it was published in 1843 because it prominently
features a child taking a sip from a glass of wine.
	
Approximately 1,000 copies of the card were printed but only 10 have
survived to modern times. Bridwell Library acquired its copy in 1982.
The card was designed for Henry Cole by his friend, the English painter
John Calcott Horsley (1808-1882). Cole wanted a ready-to-mail greeting
card
because he was too busy to engage in the traditional English custom of
writing notes with Christmas and New Year's greetings to friends and
family.

The card pre-dated color printing so it was hand-colored.  The card is
divided into three panels with the center panel depicting a family
drinking wine at a celebration and the flanking panels illustrating
charitable acts of feeding and clothing the poor. The greeting reads: "A
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to You."

Cole, who also wrote and published Christmas books, printed more cards
than he needed so he sold the extra cards for one shilling each.
Bridwell Library's card was signed by Cole and addressed to the engraver
of the card, John Thompson (1785-1866).

Widespread commercial printing of Christmas cards began in the 1860s,
when a new process of color printing lowered the manufacturing cost and
the price. Consequently, the custom of sending printed Christmas
greetings spread throughout England. The first American Christmas card
dates from about 1850 and resembles Horsley's design.
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*Shultz is Associate News and Information Director for SMU.

United Methodist News Service
(615)742-5470
Releases and photos also available at
http://www.umc.org/umns/