The 17th Century and Beyond

By the 1700s, Valentine's Day made its way to the United States. It became traditional for friends and lovers of all social classes to exchange small tokens of affection or handwritten notes. In England, the Industrial Revolution eventually included the production of fancy valentines.

When American Esther Howland received her first English valentine greeting in 1847, she believed there would be an American market for these formal, English-style greetings. She created the earliest American Valentine's Day greeting cards.