The History of Birthday Cards

It is generally thought that the tradition of sending goodwill messages began with the ancient Chinese sending New Year cards and the early Egyptians using papyrus scrolls to convey their wishes. However, the oldest known actual greeting card was made in the 1400s in England and was a handmade, hand-delivered Valentine card.

Prior to the development of the calendar, birthdays were generally not celebrated since a way to track time was not yet devised. It was around the time that the calendar was invented when birthdays began being recognized and the desire to celebrate them became more widespread. However, in those early days, birthdays were only celebrated by the more prominent and wealthy families in society.

In the mid-1800s, exchanging birthday greeting cards turned into a more common practice. It began in England and became more attractive around 1840 when the first postage stamp was issued. With the perfection of a more economical printing process in the 1850s, sending birthday cards became more affordable and thus, more popular.

For many years, greeting cards were imported from England to America. Louis Prang, known as "The Father of the American Greeting Card," was a German immigrant who opened a small printing business in Boston in 1856. He perfected his printing processes over time and in 1875 began producing cards. By 1881, Prang was producing more than 5 million cards each year, thus contributing major growth to the industry.

The greeting card industry took a down turn in the latter part of the century but picked up again in the early 1900s when many of the greeting card manufacturers still in business today were founded. Color printing processes were developed in the early 1930s and led to an explosion of growth in the industry. The introduction of humorous cards in the 1950s and general purpose cards in the 1980s were events that contributed to growth spurts in the industry as well.

Today, birthday greeting cards are estimated to represent 60% of the total annual card sales. While sending birthday cards began its history somewhat tentatively, today it is one of the most time-honored and cherished traditions in our nation.