The Winton M. Blount Postal History Symposia - Smithsonian ...

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1 2 6 • s m i t h s o n i a n c o n t r i b u t i o n s t o h i s t o ry a n d t e c h n o l o g yFigure 4. Victorian gentleman’s mahogany writing desk and woman’s papier-mâché writing desk. From the collectionof Catherine J. Golden.over Edwin Hill’s and Warren De La Rue’s envelopefoldingmachine, invented in 1845 by Edwin Hill, RowlandHill’s brother; fans of this “cutting- edge” Victoriantechnological wonder include Queen Victoria. With therise of envelope production came an increase in pictorialenvelopes. Briggs suggests in Victorian Things that “thefailure of the Mulready envelopes may have given an impetusto the popularity of other envelopes bearing viewsof places and sketches of people and things.” 21 The “failure”of the Mulready gave rise to Mulready caricatures,which, as satires of Victorian politics and culture, in turn,sparked the popularity of a whole range of pictorial envelopesthat record pressing social and political reformsas well as activities from daily Victorian life. Today aVictorian time traveler might be surprised to find peoplestanding on street corners, holding protest signs and conductingrallies; this same Victorian, over 150 years ago,might have expressed his or her views by purchasing andposting pictorial envelopes. Popular pictorial envelopes, aready means of advertising or what we would now referto as “propaganda,” advocated, for example, affordabletransatlantic postage, peace, abolition, brotherhood, vegetarianism,and temperance.One mid- century temperance envelope shows scenesof inebriation in the home, pub, and street and includes thecaption in capital letters: “INTOXICATING DRINKS—ARE THE BANE & CURSE OF SOCIETY.” Still otherspreach the positive side of abstinence by flanking the Goddessof Temperance with flag- bearing delegates from Europe,Asia, Africa, and America, all paying her homage. 22Pictorial envelopes also promoted Overseas Penny Postage,a movement aligned with peace and brotherhood andspearheaded by Elihu Burritt, United States consular agentin Birmingham. One such 1849 envelope designed, engraved,and produced by J. Valentine of Dundee includesMercury in a winged cap positioned above an overseasvessel and contains the words “Ocean Postage.” Claspedhands of individuals of different races join with a doveholding an olive branch and transportation symbols: arailway train, a canal boat, and mail packets. Scrolls unfurlingalong the top and bottom of the design displayboldly in capital letters, “BRITAIN! FROM THEE THEWORLD EXPECTS AN OCEAN PENNY POSTAGE—TO MAKE HER CHILDREN ONE FRATERNITY.” 23(Figure 5)While such didactic pictorial envelopes sermonize,others simply entertain. Scenic or tourist envelopes showcasepicturesque Victorian locales—the rural landscape,Oxford, Windsor Castle, and Stirling Castle, for instance.Beginning in 1840, Richard and James Doyle created
n u m b e r 5 5 • 1 2 7Figure 5. Ocean Penny Postage envelope, 1849. © Royal Mail Group Ltd 2009, courtesy of The BritishPostal Museum & Archive.Fores’s Comic Envelopes, offering a comical view of dailyVictorian activities—musical soirées, dancing, hunting,horse racing, shooting, courting, and Christmas celebrations.24 Envelope designs also marked important celebrations,such as the marriage of Victoria and Albert (1840),the Great Exhibition of 1851, and much later, in 1890,the jubilee of uniform inland penny postage. Looking atpictorial envelopes today, we glean what picturesque sitesfascinated the Victorians, the causes they supported, thesocial activities in which they participated, the milestonesthey celebrated, and what they found humorous.The Iconography ofVictorian ValentinesLegend has it that valentines as we know them todaydate to the fifteenth century in England—Charles, theduke of Orleans, allegedly sent a valentine to his wife in1415 while held prisoner in the Tower of London—butvalentines greatly increased after the coming of UniformPenny Postage. In 1841, just one year after postal reform,Victorians sent more than 400,000 valentines throughoutEngland; by 1871, three times that number passed throughthe London post alone. 25 Today we typically purchase aready- made valentine in a store, but in the Victorian era,stationer’s shops sold an array of materials for creatingoriginal valentines: colored and gilt papers and cards;paper cupids and hearts; bows and ribbons; printed versesand mottoes; appliqués of lace, feather, shell, and goldand silver foil. The many types of valentines offer insightinto Victorian conceptions of humor, love, and nationalidentity.Very popular were mechanical valentines that open toreveal a hidden message or can be manipulated: a mannods his head, a woman beckons with her hand, and inbawdy valentines, a female figure shows her ankle orpetti coat. Novelty valentines sometimes took the form oftelegrams from “Loveland” or notes from the “Bank ofTrue Love.” Some cards offer gentle humor, for example,urging a bachelor to marry; others are insulting. Dean &Son of Ludgate Hill, London, produced a pair of valentinescirca 1860 that deride a dandy and a lady of fashion.The valentine poem for the dandy, inscribed “À MonsieurChandelle,” reads:In your dandified hat,From your boot to your glove,I think I’ve quite pat,Drawn your portrait above;Pray don’t take offence,Nor to anger incline,
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Smithsonian InstitutionScholarly Pr
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smithsonian contributions to histor
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ContentsLETTER FROM THE DIRECTOR OF
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AcknowledgmentsThe symposium would
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2 • s m i t h s o n i a n c o n t
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1 0 • s m i t h s o n i a n c o n
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“Little Colored Bits of Paper”C
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n u m b e r 5 5 • 1 7as something
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n u m b e r 5 5 • 1 9protest came
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n u m b e r 5 5 • 2 1nals I revie
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WWI Philatelic Censuses of East Afr
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n u m b e r 5 5 • 2 5Table 1. GEA
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n u m b e r 5 5 • 2 7Figure 5. MA
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Explorations in the Official Regist
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n u m b e r 5 5 • 3 1receipts. De
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n u m b e r 5 5 • 3 3TABLE 2. Pop
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n u m b e r 5 5 • 3 5different ge
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Introduction to the Second Symposiu
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“Food Will Win the War”: Motor
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n u m b e r 5 5 • 5 1business tha
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n u m b e r 5 5 • 5 3support for
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n u m b e r 5 5 • 5 53. “Postal
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n u m b e r 5 5 • 5 7“Farmers W
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Picking Up the Pieces: The Aftermat
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n u m b e r 5 5 • 7 3and U.S. adm
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Page 87 and 88: n u m b e r 5 5 • 7 7Figure 9. Th
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Page 101: Introduction to the Fourth Symposiu
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Page 135: n u m b e r 5 5 • 1 2 5Figure 3.
Page 139 and 140: n u m b e r 5 5 • 1 2 9A Final No
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Page 143 and 144: n u m b e r 5 5 • 1 3 3Figure 3.
Page 145 and 146: n u m b e r 5 5 • 1 3 5The glazed
Page 147 and 148: n u m b e r 5 5 • 1 3 7Intercity
Page 149 and 150: n u m b e r 5 5 • 1 3 9The End of
Page 151 and 152: The U.S. 1847 Issue:Stamps That Cha
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Page 161 and 162: n u m b e r 5 5 • 1 5 1Individual
Page 163: n u m b e r 5 5 • 1 5 337. Archiv
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