Descriptive inventory for the greeting cards collection, 1840s-1990s

This collection is open for research.

Copyright may be retained by the creators of items, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law, unless otherwise noted.

Materials were brought togther as a composite collection with mostly unknown provenance except 7 boxes from accession # 1986.0452 (used as the collection's main call number), 1 folder from 1951.0191, 1 box from accession # 1989.0091, 1 folder from accession # 1990.0515, 1 box from accession # 1995.0274 and 1 card from 2001.0074.

Greeting cards collection (Chicago History Museum) plus a detailed description, date, and box/folder number of a specific item.

Photomechanically printed greeting cards and paper cutouts, some grouped in albums or scrapbooks, that document over a century of commercial graphic design. Holidays primarily represented are Christmas, St. Valentine's Day, New Year, Easter, Mother's Day, Father's Day, Halloween, St. Patrick's Day, and Thanksgiving. Additional cards include birthday, get well, thank you, wedding, anniversary, new baby, congratulations, merit awards, sympathy, patriotic, graduation, friendship, vacation, invitation, and calling cards. Other paper materials like paper dolls, trade cards, and stationery also are included. The bulk of the cards are blank, but some are addressed, signed, and/or dated. Box 32 includes Mayor Richard M. Daley family Christmas card from 1998.

This composite collection was processed over many years by various CHM staff members; an inventory was first created by Lesley Martin in 2009, which served as the basis for the finding aid completed in 2015. The two boxes of greeting cards that were damaged in the 1986 flood at CHM were evaluated by Conservation staff in 2015. Items considered to be in the best condition were arranged back into the collection, while the severely damaged items were marked for 2015 deaccessioning and disposal.

• Subject
  • Graphic design.
  • Graduation ceremonies.
  • Valentine's Day.
  • Thanksgiving Day.
  • New Year.
  • Rosh ha-Shanah.
  • Mother's Day.
  • Holidays.
  • Halloween.
  • Father's Day.
  • Easter.
  • Birthdays.
  • Christmas.
• NamesHallmark Cards, Inc.

The collection is arranged in seven series based on greeting card genre or physical format.

Series 1. Christmas cards, circa 1870s-1990s (Box 1-33)

Signed and unsigned examples of Christmas cards throughout the years.

Series 2. St. Valentine's Day cards, 1840s-1950s, 1986 (Box 34-46)

Signed and unsigned examples of St. Valentine's Day cards throughout the years.

Series 3. Scrapbooks, 1880s and undated (Box 47-52)

Miscellaneous greeting cards, cutouts, and paper scraps grouped together in albums and scrapbooks.

Series 4. Birthday cards, 1900s-1980s (Box 53-56)

Signed and unsigned examples of birthday cards throughout the years.

Series 5. New Year cards, 1880s-circa early 20th century (Box 57-58)

Signed and unsigned examples of New Year cards throughout the years.

Series 6. Easter cards, circa 1890s-1970s (Box 59)

Signed and unsigned examples of Easter cards throughout the years.

Series 7. Miscellaneous occasion cards, 19th and 20th centuries (Box 60-68)

Includes signed and unsigned Father's Day, Halloween, Mother's Day, St. Patrick's Day, and Thanksgiving holiday cards, as well as anniversary, best wishes and good luck, birthday, friendship, get well, graduation, patriotic, religious, sympathy, thank you, wedding, any occasion and blank cards, business greeting cards, greeting card books, story cards, trade cards, calling cards, foreign language cards, postcards, paper dolls, stationery, merit awards, and loose scraps and cutouts.