17. Steam-powered printing presses made Valentine’s Day cards affordable to the masses
We have the Industrial Revolution to thank for the mass-produced Valentine’s Day cards many people send today. The arrival of the steam-powered printing press meant that thousands of cards could be produced in an hour, bringing the price down and making them affordable to almost everyone. In the United States, Esther A. Howland became known as the “Mother of the Valentine” when she began selling the country’s first mass-produced cards in America in the 1840s. And then, in 1913, Hallmark Cards, was established and soon became a market leader.
