She was remembered as an aristocratic woman with high color and glossy chestnut hair. For decades she would be a steady employer in Worcester. She hired some of her friends and set up a Valentine assembly line in her home. What is certain is that Esther Howland’s sentimental, romantic Valentines were popular. She said she hoped he came back with $200 in orders, but he returned with $5,000 in orders, an astounding figure for the time that not everyone believes. With those materials she made some Valentines and sent them with her salesman brother on his out-of-town customer calls. She subsequently ordered lace and colored paper from England and small lithographs from New York. Whatever happened, she thought she could make prettier ones herself. According to another, a business associate of her father’s gave her an English Valentine. According to one story, she saw Valentines from London in her father’s store. She attended Mount Holyoke Academy in South Hadley, Mass., at the same time Emily Dickinson studied there.Īfter graduating from college, Esther went into the Valentine business. Her father owned a large bookbindery and stationery business. And her thriving Valentine business employed women for decades.Įsther Howland was born in Worcester in 1828 to Southworth and Esther Howland. She was a 19 th century businesswoman in Worcester, Mass., who popularized expensive English-style Valentines with lots of lace, colored paper and three-dimensional effects. Thought she made a fortune promoting romantic sentiments, she never married herself.Įsther Howland was called ‘The Mother of the American Valentine,’ but a more accurate description might have been ‘Mother of the Professional American Woman.’ Esther Howland Esther Howland built up a business selling Valentines in her hometown of Worcester, Mass., leaving the city’s fame as the Valentine Capital of America.
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