Why we send valentine cards. There are Massachusetts connections

The Patriot Ledger
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Feb. 14 might have been just another day if not for the creative genius of a woman who lived her last days in Quincy.

Esther Allen Howland is credited with introducing valentines into this country in the 19th century. She started making her own designs in the attic of her family home in Worcester in 1849 and sold them in her father’s stationery shop.

At its height, Howland’s card-making enterprise rose to $100,000 in yearly sales. She started what is now a $1.3-billion-a-year greeting card business by instilling in Americans the tradition of sending messages of love to their sweethearts on Valentine’s Day.

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Esther Allen Howland is credited with introducing valentine cards into this country in the 19th century. She died in 1904 in Quincy.
Esther Allen Howland is credited with introducing valentine cards into this country in the 19th century. She died in 1904 in Quincy.
Esther Allen Howland is credited with introducing valentine cards into this country in the 19th century. She died in 1904 in Quincy.
Esther Allen Howland is credited with introducing valentine cards into this country in the 19th century. She died in 1904 in Quincy.

She sold her business, the New England Valentine Co., in the 1880s to the George C. Whitney Co. of Worcester to care for her ailing father.

Howland is also credited with having the first assembly line. When her first orders came in, she enlisted her friends to run the workshop from her home. Be it shuffling papers, securing ribbons or making lace doilies, each girl had one job to do and the valentine went down the line until it was finished.

Esther Allen Howland is credited with introducing valentine cards into this country in the 19th century. She died in 1904 in Quincy.
Esther Allen Howland is credited with introducing valentine cards into this country in the 19th century. She died in 1904 in Quincy.

Howland’s legacy continues. Beginning in 2001, the Greeting Card Association has annually given the Esther Howland Award for a Greeting Card Visionary, and it estimates that 200 million valentines are sent each year in the United States.

Although Howland cornered the business of love, her affairs of the heart apparently were not as successful. She never married and died on March 15, 1904, at age 75. She was living with her brother on Adams Street in Quincy.

Esther Allen Howland is credited with introducing valentine cards into this country in the 19th century. She died in 1904 in Quincy.
Esther Allen Howland is credited with introducing valentine cards into this country in the 19th century. She died in 1904 in Quincy.

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This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: Why do we send valentines? There are Quincy and Worcester connections