by Pat Sumpter

Created on: December 15, 2008

Sir Henry Cole is credited as being one of the first who suggested a design for a printed card to be sent to many relatives and friends. He submitted his idea to artist John Calcott Horsley in 1843. One thousand copies of it sold for one shilling each.

"A merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to You" appeared on the card of three panels, along with a reminder to feed the hungry and clothe the naked to the left and the right. The center panel depicted a family of three generations toasting the holiday season. Those of the Temperance movement complained that the card promoted the consumption of alcoholic beverages, but despite their outcry, the card successfully gave birth to the greeting card industry which spread to the United States.

The Castell Brothers, Dickes & Mansell, Marcus Ward, and Thomas De La Rue, greatly contributed to the growth of the Christmas card industry, as did others who supplied established stationers with them. Their cards were imported to the United States and also arrived in American mailboxes.

The New York lithograph firm of R. H. Pease presented a Christmas card in 1850 that may be considered the first printed in the United States. As described by George Buday, "The design includes the features of a small, rather elf-like Santa Claus with fur trimmed cap, sleigh and reindeer. A ballroom with dancers, the building marked 'Temple of Fancy', an array of Christmas presents and Christmas dishes and drinks decorate the four corners of the card, while in the center, we see a young couple with three children visibly delighted with their presents; behind the family group a black servant is laying the table for the Christmas dinner. In addition to the central 'A Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year' the ornamented lettering includes 'To: and 'From:' with spaces to be filled by the sender." One example remains today in the archives of the RustCraft Company.

It is also said the real "Father of the American Christmas Card", was a heavily bearded man by the name of Louis Prang, (1824 -1909) an artist, writer, and the producer of Prang Water Colors and the color wheel denoting primary, secondary, and intermediate colors.

After being born to a German mother and a French Huguenot father in Breslau, Louis printed calico cloth in his father's shop. He later traveled Europe as a journeyman, then in 1850, he entered the United States.

Louis made his home in the Roxbury section of Boston, and became an engraver in the employment of Gleason's, and Joseph Mayer.

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