Laura Seddon Greeting Card Collection is a collection of 19th to early 20th century British greeting cards, housed in the All Saints Library of

Manchester Metropolitan University Manchester Metropolitan University is located in the centre of Manchester, England. The university has 40,000 students and over 4,000 members of staff. It is home to four faculties (Arts and Humanities, Business and Law, Health and Education ...

, England. The collection contains 32,000 cards by various publishers, including Britain's first commercially-produced Christmas card. Laura Seddon donated her collection to the university in 1992.

Overview

The collection consists of a section of 32,000 Victorian and Edwardian greeting cards by major publishers of the day. It includes cards printed by hand such as those produced by Sockl and Nathan and also mass-produced cards (a subsequent production method) like those produced by Marcus Ward & Co and Raphael Tuck & Sons. Some of the cards hold special significance, for example Britain's first commercially produced Christmas card dating from 1843. The collection is catalogued in Laura Seddon's book ''A Gallery of Greetings''. Another section of the collection includes 450

Valentine's Day Valentine's Day, also called Saint Valentine's Day or the Feast of Saint Valentine, is celebrated annually on February 14. It originated as a Christian feast day honoring a Christian martyrs, martyr named Saint Valentine, Valentine, and ...

cards dating from the early 19th century, which Seddon also catalogued. The cards vary from loving to crude and show a different side to the Victorian values that might be expected. The cards include fake wedding certificates, cards that make references to

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and others that suggest that the recipient may face being "left on the shelf".Valentine cards reveal Britain's relationship history
Manchester Metropolitan University, retrieved 22 November 2013

History

Laura Seddon got the idea for this collection after attending a presentation by Sir Harry Page, a

Manchester City Council Manchester City Council is the Local government in England, local authority for the City status in the United Kingdom, city of Manchester in Greater Manchester, England. Manchester has had an elected local authority since 1838, which has been re ...

treasurer, where she saw his collection which included 276 bound scrap-albums created between 1752 and 1935. Page's aim had been to avoid collections of press cuttings but to try to find writings, paintings, "the prints and scraps" which had been gathered together by "young ladies". He had gathered many of these but his collection had spread its focus but always retaining a discernment.Scraps on Albums
Birkbeck College, 2006, retrieved 22 November 2013 Page's meta-collection suggested to Seddon that she might create her own collection. She decided to focus on early greeting cards from both the Victorian and Edwardian periods. The card collection was curated by Seddon over a period of 20 years initially using George Buday's book ''History of the Christmas Card''. The collection became so important that she was able to donate it to

. Seddon became an Honorary Fellow of the university in 1992 in recognition of her donation and achievement. Together with the Sir Harry Page collection (which was purchased by this university), these makes up the two Victorian Ephemera collections of the MMU Special Collections.

References

{{Manchester Metropolitan University, state=autocollapse Greeting cards Collections of museums in the United Kingdom Manchester Metropolitan University