Charles Dickens may be credited as the man who invented Christmas,' but it was John Callcott Horsley (1817-1903) who invented the first Christmas card.
John Callcott Horsley was born in London on January 29, 1817. The son of the renowned musician and composer William Horsley, John, a painter and illustrator, trained at England's Royal Academy of Arts. Horsley exhibited many of his works at the Royal Academy including in 1836 his famous "The Pride of the Village." In 1844 he was one of six painters commissioned to create frescoes for the British Houses of Parliament.
In December of 1843, Henry Cole, a British civil servant and friend of Horsley's decided he didn't have the time or desire to compose and send his traditional Christmas letter to his family and friends. Instead, Cole hired John Callcott Horsley to create a simple Christmas card to replace the long, time consuming letter.
Horsley's card, which would become the first official Christmas card, was inspired by the church's triptych altar panels. A triptych is a painting or carving that is divided into three sections or panels that that are hinged together and can be folded. Horsley's creation featured a family party in progress in the center panel with the side panels depicting acts of charity with the poor receiving food and clothing. The message under the center picture simple stated, "Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year." The center picture was then framed with designs of tendrils and branches. The center picture would later bring outrage and criticism from Temperance groups as it included a small child raising a glass of wine.
This first Christmas card was lithographed on stiff paperboard in dark sepia and hand colored. Its size was approximately 5 and 1/8 inches by 3 and 1/4 inches. Later, John Callcott Horsley also designed what came to be known as the "Horsley envelope." This was a pre-paid envelope and the predecessor to the postage stamp.
Henry Cole owned his own lithographic studio and printed 1,000 of Horsley's card design. Each was manually colored and then sent out to Cole's family, friends, and business associates. In a bold move, Cole then took the remainder of the cards to a stationer's shop in Old Bond Street, London and sold them to the public for one shilling apiece.
Despite the beautiful creation by John Callcott Horsley, the Christmas card didn't gain any real popularity until about 1862. London printers Charles Goodall & Sons created a simple card that carried the message, "Merry Christmas." They later added designs that included robins, holly, and eventually mangers and even snowmen. They produced cards until 1885. By the late 1880's Christmas card manufacturing was a big business in Great Britain, filled with lucrative opportunities for artists, writers, printers, and engravers.
Christmas cards were introduced in the United States in 1875 by German born designer Louis Prang. Prior to the 1870's, Christmas cards and their exchange had been a habit and fashion mostly exclusive to Great Britain. Prang, known as the Father of the American Greeting Card, developed chromolithography, a four-colored printing process that was the first workable system to reproduce color in print. By 1880, Prang was producing more than five million greeting cards per year. Ten years later he quit amid the influx of cheaply manufactured, imported German cards. It wasn't until the early 1900's that the American publishers regained their share of the American Christmas card market.
John Callcott Horsley left his legacy to the art world with his many paintings and prints, but it is his creative innovation of the Christmas card that has touched and changed how millions share Christmas greetings with each other.