Valentine Museum

The History of Valentine's Day

In Great Britain, Valentine's Day began to be popularly celebrated around the seventeenth century. By the middle of the eighteenth century, it was common for friends and lovers in all social classes to exchange small tokens of affection or handwritten notes.

By the end of the century, printed cards began to replace written letters due to improvements in printing technology. Ready-made cards were an easy way for people to express their emotions in a time when direct expression of one's feelings was discouraged.

Cheaper postage rates also contributed to an increase in the popularity of sending Valentine's Day greetings. Americans probably began exchanging hand-made valentines in the early 1700s. In the 1840s, Esther A. Howland began to sell the first mass-produced valentines in America.

Far from being fearful, Roman women welcomed being touched with the hides because it was believed the strips would make them more fertile in the coming year.

The boys then sliced the goat's hide into strips, dipped them in the sacrificial blood and took to the streets, gently slapping both women and fields of crops with the goat hide strips.

Later in the day, according to legend, all the young women in the city would place their names in a big urn. The city's bachelors would then each choose a name out of the urn and become paired for the year with his chosen woman. These matches often ended in marriage. Pope Gelasius declared February 14 St.Valentine's Day around 498 A.D.

The Roman 'lottery' system for romantic pairing was deemed un-Christian and outlawed. Later, during the Middle Ages, it was commonly believed in France and England that February 14 was the beginning of birds' mating season, which added to the idea that the middle of February -- Valentine's Day -- should be a day for romance.

The oldest known valentine still in existence today was a poem written by Charles, Duke of Orleans to his wife while he was imprisoned in the Tower of London following his capture at the Battle of Agincourt. The greeting, which was written in 1415, is part of the manuscript collection of the British Library in London, England. Several years later, it is believed that King Henry V hired a writer named John Lydgate to compose a valentine note to Catherine of Valois.

Museum braces for Valentine sex show

"We wanted to do something special for adults in Valentine's Day," program director Ken Dewar explained this week. "It will be closed off and we'll be warning people before they come in."

According to VANCOUVER SUN Friday, February 13, 1998 TORONTO -- An X-rated display of erotica meant as a Valentine's Day treat for lovers has curators joking nervously at the Royal Ontario Museum. "It's not really pornography but if somebody says it is, we're in trouble," says Brian Musselwhite, assistant curator for decorative arts. "I hope I'm not led away in handcuff," says Paul Denis, assistant curator for Greek and Roman collections.

They're talking about Love and Lust Through the Ages, an exhibit described in newspaper ads as a collection of "rarely seen salacious erotica that hides in the ROM's collections." says John Goddard Southam Newspapers

"In ancient Greece and Rome, sex was not considered a hindrance to spiritual development," Denis said. "People wore penis amulets to ward off the evil eye. Even children wore phallic rings for the same reason."

Gayle Gibson, an educator specializing in ancient Egypt, is offering clay penises and fertility figures with over sized pubic triangles collected from tombs. "What would the future make of the Barbie doll?" she mused when asked what the figures might have meant to the people who made them.

"Is Barbie a fertility figure? Or with no nipples or a vagina, does she represent the playful aspects of sexuality?"