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“ When You Care Enough

”
to Send the Very Best

By Maxine Carter-Lome, publisher

Vintage Easter greeting card features a blond toddler in a flocked bunny suit. On the back, the Hallmark stamp (10E630-5), copyright MCMXIIX (1920) Hall Brothers, Inc.

“On January 10, 1910, a teenager from Nebraska stepped off a train in Kansas City, MO, with little more than
big dreams and two shoeboxes of picture postcards. From those inauspicious beginnings, an iconic brand was born.”
– Hallmark.com

lthough the Hallmark® brand is to greeting cards what Kleenex® With the outbreak of World War I, greeting cards quickly replaced
is to tissue, the history of greeting cards dates back long before postcards as supplies dried up just as demand among servicemen and
Athat young man, J.C. Hall, stepped off the train. their loved ones was rising.
Greeting cards date back to the ancient Chinese, who exchanged “No one in the greeting card business set out to benefit from the
messages of goodwill to celebrate a New Year, and to early Egyptians, war, but in many ways, it was an important turning point for the
who used papyrus scrolls to send greetings. industry,” J.C. is quoted in Patrick Regan’s book Hallmark: A Century
By the early 15th century, of Caring. “People sought closer contact with one another and especially
handmade paper greeting cards with their relatives and friends in the service. And servicemen them-
were being exchanged in selves not only enjoyed receiving greetings, but sending them as well.”
Europe, including the first J.C. Hall was already in business with his two brothers when WWI
Valentine created in 1415. The began in 1914. Living in Kansas City, Missouri at the time, he and his
British Library has in its brothers were running a stationery store and producing their own
collection what is believed to greeting cards. Hall saw the rising trend in mailed greetings as an
be the oldest known surviving opportunity to grow his business and went for it.
Valentine made by the French
nobleman Charles, Duke of Building a House of Cards
Orléans. In 1410 Charles had,
at the age of 16, married 11- Hall overcame poverty and the lack of formal education to become
The Chinese have been credited for using year-old Bonne of Armagnac in the architect of a fairly new industry and live the American dream.
the first greeting cards in history. During what was an arranged union to - from Hallmark.com
the Chinese New Year, an exchange of solidify the union of two
greetings in writing was carried out as a bloodlines. He went on to Joyce Clyde (J.C.) Hall was born
tradition for conveying goodwill messages. serve under his father-in-law August 29, 1891, in David City, Nebraska,
Ancient Chinese manuscripts have been during the years-long French the youngest son of George Nelson Hall
found as evidence of such exchanges. These
manuscripts were wonderful works of art. civil war between the and Nancy Dudley Houston Hall.
Armagnacs and the From a young age growing up in
Burgundians. Five years later, Norfolk, Nebraska, where the family set-
Charles was captured by the British and imprisoned in the Tower of tled at the turn of the century, J.C. was
London for 25 years at the age of 21; Bonne was then just 16. While more interested in making money than he
imprisoned, he wrote a poem to his wife and used the term “Valentine” was interested in being a good student.
to refer to her. “My very gentle Valentine, Since for me you were born After an initial venture selling perfume to
too soon, And I for you was born too late. God forgives him who has neighbors, J.C. began clerking in his older
estranged Me from you for the whole year. I am already sick of love, brothers’ bookstore after school, which the
My very gentle Valentine.” Bonne passed away before ever seeing Portrait of young brothers ran as a way to supplement the
Charles again. Joyce C. Hall family’s income.
The 1800s saw a surge in the designing, printing, selling, and giving When he was 16, Joyce and his two older brothers, Rollie and
of greeting cards, most notably Valentine’s Day and Christmas cards. William, pooled their money and opened the Norfolk Post Card
By the 1850s, the greeting card had been transformed from a relatively Company, but the market for imported picture postcards in Norfolk
expensive, handmade, and hand-delivered gift. It had become a popular was limited. Not quite two years later, Joyce dropped out of high school
and affordable means of personal communication thanks to advances in to pursue his entrepreneurial dreams. He gathered his savings,
printing, mechanization, color lithography, and a reduction in postal crammed two shoeboxes full of postcards, and boarded a train for
rates with the introduction of the postage stamp. These early advances Kansas City, MO. Working out of his “headquarters,” a.k.a. his room
and the establishment of commercial printing presses in America made at the YMCA, Hall called on drugstores, bookstores, and gift shops
these special occasion cards both popular and affordable, giving rise to with his postcards, wholesaling products created and manufactured
a new industry. by others.
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