CUPID'S SAFE

 

VALENTINE

Image from Free Vintage Art

Taking us back to the time of the soda jerk and fantasies of a first kiss.

Have you asked your relatives who are married how they first met?

 

MY HEARTS BEST LOVE

 

LOVED ONES

 

ACCORDING TO MY REFERENCES

 

VALENTINES DAY

The day to wear your heart on your sleeve but why buy chocolates or flowers when you can write a love letter or poem and leave it under a special person's pillow?

GET THAT VALENTINE INTO THE DAILY MAIL

 

GEORGE WASHINGTON'S VALENTINE for MARTHA CUSTIS

An artist named John Wolcott Adams (who lived 1874-1925) designed this valentine which is supposed to depict the romance of Founding Father George Washington to Martha Custis, the widow who would become his wife, dating it 1758.

It was published in magazine Collier's weekly, February 1913 and is part of the collection of the United States, Library of Congress.

Go to the site to look for historical images that might apply to your genealogy research.

POLITICALLY INCORRECT VALENTINES

This past winter came the controversy of the Christmas Song titled "Baby It's Cold Outside."  I listened to different versions.  Some better than others.  Some more flirtatious than others.  I learned the original song debuted in the 1930's and the singers - one male - one female - sang it so that at first it sounded like the male was flirting - seductive - with the female and then that reversed.  In any case, I thought it was ridiculous to pick on this particular fun song, when we've had the sexist, woman objectifying and disrespecting rap phenomena for so long.

But as I went through Google Images looking for a vintage and public domain Valentine to post on ANCESTRY WORSHIP - GENEALOGY BLOGSPOT, I was sensitive to the fact that so very many of them sounded stalkerish.

Keep those Valentines for your family history project. They are quite telling about attitudes and values in boys' and girls' and mens' and womens' relationships in their time and place.

FROM ONE BOOKWORM TO ANOTHER - HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!

This one I like and can relate to.

But is it a Valentine?

SEXIST AND RACIST - OFFENSIVE VALENTINES THAT WE HAVE TO PUT INTO HISTORICAL CONTEXT

Today I've been looking for a VALENTINE to post on this blog, sorting through the offerings that come up in Google Images when I add the words "public domain" and "Vintage" or "Old." 

I've seen Valentines that, using the usual cartoonish or highly romantic art, depict, supposedly with humor, the beating of a woman so that she will finally be the Valentine of the man who gifted her with it.  Not funny.  Not loving.

But the idea that a card giver might batter or insult a woman to get her to like him rests in sexism and attitudes towards women that have not entirely changed, very sad to say. 

I, as a writer, reader, literature major, and dogged researcher,

found this one deeply personally offensive.

The idea was that a boy giving this Valentine to a girl

didn't really want an intelligent or educated woman.

 

(MANY OF US HAVE GRANDPARENTS WHO NEVER LEARNED TO READ AND WRITE, who made their mark of an X on legal documents with a witness there as a result and many of us have parents who dropped out of high school and had to get their G.E.D. or equivalent after they served in the armed forces or got through working at anything during the Great Depression.)

This one was probably considered rather risqué back in the day

but these days with the Kardashian sisters showing off

their booties on a regular basis, we've grown numb.

I also found a few Valentines - very few - that depicted cartoonish or romantic BLACK people.  Since most of these were pretty much in line with the Valentines that depicted cartoonish or romantic WHITE people, I decided that they were not offensive.

But these two, below, did seem to be.  I had to wonder if BLACK people had found it difficult to purchase Valentines and other cards that showed people who looked like them in the stores. 



Of course, the handmade Valentine, especially the ones made by children for their parents and siblings, grandparents, cousins, and friends, are probably most endearing and a way around the offensive.  Right now kids are making Valentines in their school classrooms and at special programs staged at libraries and I'm sure that many handmade Valentines have remained cherished with all those drawings, and all the glitter glue.

This morning I was talking to a stranger about Valentines.  I told her that a couple years ago, because Valentines used to be given to friends from friends, I gave a dozen people who were perhaps more acquaintances than friends, small fun cards with a piece of good chocolate each when we had lunch together about that time.  One of the men, though he was at the table when I distributed these to one and all, unexpectedly took this small offering as a come on by me.  Just what I didn't need.

But I do remember, even if perhaps a parent or a teacher thought that every child in class should receive a Valentine from every other child in the class, the excitement of being seven years old, having a kid crush on one particular boy, and how wonderful and special it felt when his Valentine was delivered to my desk.  I recall the fun of a decorated classroom and a specially wrapped Valentine box that served as a mail box and how it was considered an honor to be picked to be the mail carrier!

C 2016  Ancestry Worship - Genealogy  All Rights Reserved.
Images are from Google Images - search for Public Domain and Vintage Valentines

ACCORDING TO MY REFERENCES YOU'D MAKE A SWELL VALENTINE

VINTAGE VALENTINE SPINNER : WILL YOU MARRY A BEGGER MAN OR A THIEF?

A blogger named Knitting Iris posted some Vintage Valentines and encouraged people to share them, and I really loved this one.  You could print it and then come up with a spinner to place in the center - I think you can make one from one of those metal paper fasteners - so that you and your friends, or maybe the kids, can find out if their Valentine will be a Doctor, Lawyer, Merchant, chief (i.e Indian Chief),  Richman, Poor Man, or Begger or Thief!  (Needless to say this is so Vintage political correctness doesn't come into it! There are no female images though some of the males look to be rather femme.)

Or you could make an update as a fun Valentine's game!

Happy Happy! 

SCRAPBOOKING YOUR CHILDREN'S VALENTINES

One of the nicest things you can do for your child is what my mother did for me... fill scrapbooks with the cards they receive for Valentines, birthdays, and all the special events of their lives.

Your child may not remember all the classmates that gave them cards, or all their childhood friends who came to their parties, but as the years go by the VINTAGE quality of the books is interesting - historical - in itself!

VINTAGE VALENTINE

ANY SECRET VALENTINES ON YOUR MIND?

Don't you just envy those people who have their parent's love letters as part of their family history collection?

HISTORY.COM has a fantastic VALENTINES LINK

Click on the link above to learn about the start of this holiday which so many people in the United States love. In time for you to send loving greetings to your friends and family... Let's remember our UNMARRIED LOVED ONES TOO - OUR SIBLINGS, FRIENDS, and CO-WORKERS !

OLD LOVE LETTERS ? WRITE TO THE ONE YOU LOVE TODAY !

Old love letters are often very informative and can help you in your quest to understand your ancestors. We have Internet and e-mail, Blogging, and interactive chats, and so many ways to have long-distance relationships of various kinds through the Internet, but some good "old fashioned" love letter writing will never really go out of style.

How to ? First buy a commemorative, decorative stamp, to affix on the envelope.
Then, find some good writing paper, the acid free kind that can last the years. Sometimes this is sold by the sheet.

A good pen - flowing gel ink for instance - and your best handwriting are key.
Of course writing FROM YOUR HEART is the best and only thing to do.

Written, walk that letter to the mailbox and put a kiss on it before you mail it.
Vibes... the best!