The Commercialization of Valentine’s Day

In the early 19th-century, the industrialisation of Britain brought with it advances in printing and manufacturing technologies. Mass-produced Valentine's cards became very popular.

A collection of over 1,700 cards is still held at the Museum of London. Cards feature elabo...

• In the mid-19th century, archaeologists found the ruins of the world's oldest known library in Nineveh (modern-day Iraq).
• It dates back to the 7th century B.C and includes 30,000 cuneiform tablets, mostly containing archival documents, religious incantations and scholarly texts.

Saint Valentine of Rome was added to the Catholic calendar by Pope Gelasius in 496. By the mid-17th century, the celebration of Valentine's day in England was customary.

The first commercial valentines day appeared in England at the end of the 18th century. They combined traditional symbo...