Will you be my Valentine?

Sweethearts exchanged paper or written valentines as early as the 1400s. Some valentines were extremely ornate designs that were drawn, painted, or intricately cut from paper.

These decorative pieces eventually gave way to manufactured cards by the mid-1800s. Cards, flowers, and chocolates have replaced the more decorative valentines of the early nineteenth century.

Mary and Thomas Cope

Poetry

Autograph Albums

David Hackman

Wartime Letters

Valentine's Day

Sarah and Jasper Yeates

Credits

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Puzzle-Purse Valentine
ca. 1830

When love is met
It is hard to part
If betwixt the two
There is but one heart

Sent by Peter Shirk to Barbara Hoffman, Caernarvon Township.
They were married on Valentine’s Day 1832.

LANCASTER COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY ARCHIVES, MG-180 CARD COLLECTION