Halloween card

The list

1. 01

   Winsch

   Well-known early postcard printer whose artists' designs are collected as Halloween memorabilia

2. 02

   Raphael Tuck & Sons

   Well-known early postcard printer that employed collectable-design artists

3. 03

   Samuel Schmucker

   Winsch artist; Lisa Morton called his works small masterpieces of art nouveau; highly prized

4. 04

   Jason Freixas

   Winsch artist whose postcard works are highly prized

5. 05

   Francis Brundage

   Artist employed by Tuck

6. 06

   Ellen Clapsaddle

   Tuck artist called the 'queen of postcard artists'; designed a 1904 postcard

Facts from the original

• A Halloween card is a greeting card associated with Halloween.
• The concept originated in the 1890s in the United States.
• Halloween cards experienced a peak of popularity in the United States in the early 1900s.
• Until the common home telephone arrived, Halloween cards played a role similar to Christmas cards and birthday cards.
• Today, many cards from the popular designers of the period are sought after as memorabilia.
• An early reference to a Halloween card appears in volume 4 of Ingall's Home and Art Magazine, published in 1891.
• That 1891 magazine reference is a sample design depicted in the article 'Domestic Helps for the Home' by Laura Willis Lathrop.
• Early Halloween cards typically depicted the same themes as Easter cards and Christmas cards.
• Publishers reused images for various holidays, with the caption signifying the specific holiday.
• From about 1900 to 1915, the United States experienced a Halloween 'postcard craze'.
• The postcard craze continued the commercialization of the holiday that began in the 1800s.
• By 1909, the Souvenir Post Card Company of New York City produced 12 Halloween card designs.
• In 1909 that same company produced 206 Christmas cards, 144 Easter cards, 70 Valentine's Day cards, 56 New Year's cards, and 36 Thanksgiving Day cards.
• The Souvenir Post Card Company also produced cards for other occasions including birthdays, St. Patrick's Day, George Washington and Abraham Lincoln's birthdays, and Decoration Day.
• The popularity of Halloween cards rivaled that of Christmas cards until about 1930.
• By about 1930, telephones were common household items and began supplanting the use of greeting cards.
• Halloween-themed postal cards were sold in post offices and by private printers with displays in general stores.
• The popularity of Halloween cards and the holiday's commercial success was 'ultimately determined' by women, particularly those in the middle class.
• Of the over 3,000 cards produced in the United States during this period, many depicted themes common to the modern tradition, including witches, pumpkins, and goblins.
• Other Halloween postcard themes included fortune-telling and romance or courtship.
• Designs also reflected the racism in the United States of the era.
• Of the postcards produced by the Rust Craft Greeting Card Company from 1927 to 1959 catalogued by Wendy Morris, twelve categories of ethnic imagery were identified.
• The most common theme was black children, appearing on 42% of cards depicting an ethnic or racial difference from the white majority.
• Well-known early postcard printers include Winsch and Raphael Tuck & Sons.
• Both Winsch and Raphael Tuck & Sons employed artists whose postcard designs are collectables sought by Halloween memorabilia collectors.
• Winsch works by Samuel Schmucker, described by Lisa Morton in The Halloween Encyclopedia as 'small masterpieces of art nouveau', and by Jason Freixas are highly prized.
• Among the artists employed by Tuck were Francis Brundage and the 'queen of postcard artists', Ellen Clapsaddle.
• An early 1900s Halloween post card depicted a woman dressed as a witch with a Jack-o'-lantern, captioned 'Hallowe'en Greetings'.
• A 1904 postcard was designed by Ellen Clapsaddle.
• An early 20th century coon card featured racist caricatures of black children.