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AHalloween card is agreeting card associated withHalloween. The concept originated in the 1890sUnited States, experiencing a peak of popularity there in the early 1900s. Until the advent of the commonhome telephone, Halloween cards occupied a role similar toChristmas cards andbirthday cards. Today, many cards from the popular designers of the period are sought after asmemorabilia.
An early reference to a Halloween card is made in volume 4 ofIngall's Home and Art Magazine published in 1891, in which a sample design is depicted in the articleDomestic Helps for the Home by Laura Willis Lathrop.[1] Early Halloween cards typically depicted the same themes asEaster cards andChristmas cards, as publishers reused images for various holidays, with the caption signifying the specific holiday.[2] From about 1900 to 1915, the United States experienced a Halloween "postcard craze" that continued the commercialization of the holiday that began in the 1800s.[3] By 1909, theSouvenir Post Card Company of New York City produced 12 Halloween card designs.[4][a]
The popularity of Halloween cards rivaled that ofChristmas cards until about 1930, by which timetelephones were common household items and began supplanting the use of greeting cards.[5] Halloween-themed postal cards were sold inpost offices and by private printers with displays ingeneral stores.[6] Their popularity and the holiday's commercial success was "ultimately determined" by women, particularly those in themiddle class.[6]
Of the over 3,000 cards produced in the United States during this period, many depicted themes common to the modern tradition, includingwitches,pumpkins, andgoblins.[5] Other Halloween postcard themes includedfortune-telling[5] and romance or courtship.[7] Designs also reflected theracism in the United States of the era: of the postcards produced by theRust Craft Greeting Card Company from 1927 to 1959 catalogued by Wendy Morris, twelve categories of ethnic imagery were identified.[8] The most common theme being black children, appearing on 42% of cards depicting an ethnic or racial difference from the white majority.[8]
Well-known early postcard printers include Winsch andRaphael Tuck & Sons.[5] Both printers employed artists whose postcard designs arecollectables sought by Halloween memorabiliacollectors.[5] Winsch works by Samuel Schmucker (described as "small masterpieces of art nouveau" by Lisa Morton in her bookThe Halloween Encyclopedia) and Jason Freixas are highly prized.[5] Among the artists employed by Tuck were Francis Brundage, and the "queen of postcard artists",Ellen Clapsaddle.[5]
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