Let me count the ways…

February 14th, 2011 |

For the past two Saturdays, children have been spending their afternoons at the Kemerer Museum, creating wonderful Valentine pocket purses during our Hunt for History. To provide some background information on the history of Valentines for the program, I did a cursory search of our collections and found that we have an abundance of old Valentines.

For curators, the volume of a type of object often indicates its importance in a society. Think of the things that you keep or save. Your child’s christening gown. One of a kind paintings. Your grandmother’s wedding china. These are all types of objects that often end up in museum collections. So it wasn’t a complete surprise to find so many Valentines in our collections. They are certainly something many people save as a remembrance of loved ones. Some are beautiful and extremely ornate, with folding and three dimensional parts. Others are simple poems or written lines. And a few are quite comical.

Take a look at some of our favorite old Valentines from the collection, and tell us about your favorite Valentine!