Valentine’s Day display at Matheson Library

A selection of Rare Books Collection material celebrating Valentine’s Day is on display on the ground floor of Sir Louis Matheson Library, Clayton campus.

Saint Valentine’s day has its origins in the Roman celebration of Lupercalia. Saint Valentine, a 3rd century priest, was not himself a romantic figure; he suffered martyrdom, being first beaten by clubs, then beheaded. This gruesome choice by the early Church fathers as the saint for the 14th February did not erase from public memory the day on which girls in ancient Rome would place their names in a box and invite the boys to choose.

The celebration of Valentine’s Day is mentioned by Chaucer and Shakespeare, and was certainly popular in England throughout the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. Pepys mentions it in his diary in 1667. Hone’s Everyday book (1838) estimated that 20,000 cards were sent for Valentine’s Day each year, and Chamber’s Book of days (1888) refers to “many hundred thousand” being sent.

Among the items on display are some “black valentines” from the 1850s. These were part of a fashion for “quizzing” or teasing your beloved by sending him or her a mildly insulting card, for fun.

The cards are part of the Library’s collection of ephemera but we also have on show some books and pamphlets published to help people devise their own messages, The complete valentine writer (1810?); and a A new valentine writer for ladies and gentlemen (1830?). Two books on kissing complete the display, All about kisses (1876) and A hundred ways of kissing girls (1901).

6 February 2009

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Valentine's Day card c1879