DEC 18 - DEC 24, 2019 THE ULTIMATE QUEER GUIDE THIS WEEK

AdamsArtExpose’ ART
CHRISTMAS CARD ART FROM THE FIRST CARDS TO TODAY
Christmas cards are not prehistoric,
in fact, the first Christmas card is
ascribed to an English postman by the
name of Henry Cole, He had been
successful in passing a reform to lower
the price of a postage stamp to one
penny in 1843. To encourage people
to use the newly discounted postage
his idea was to introduce the concept
of sending a greeting card to friends
and relatives. He commissioned the
artist John Calcott Horsley to design the
card. The card featured a scene with a
large family around a table. Small side
scenes were added that displayed people
in acts of charity. This was the same
year coincidently that Charles Dickens
published the Christmas Carol. This was
the only single Christmas card published.
With the new lithographic printing
which had just come into being, one
thousand cards were printed and were
all successfully mailed using the new one
penny postage.
The first Christmas card designed
and marketed in the United States is
attributed to Louis Prang. Prang was
an immigrant from the country that is
now Poland. He settled in Boston in
1850 where he worked with Julius Mayer
to form Prang and Mayer, lithographic
printers. Prang returned to Europe in
1864 to study the new techniques of
color lithographic printing. The first
Christmas card printed was a floral
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