Valentine's Day

The history of Valentine’s Day is varied and different stories surround this famous holiday. Though there were countless early Christian martyrs known as “Valentine,” one story concerning the history of the holiday holds that the Valentines honored are the Valentine of Rome and the Valentine of Terni. Both martyrs met their demise during the 3rd and 2nd centuries, respectively (Wikipedia).
Another version of the story claims that Valentine was a priest who was killed as a result of his actions, either performing marriages illegally or helping Christians escape Roman persecution (History.com) A common story holds that Valentine’s Day originated in February as a response to the coinciding pagan holiday in mid-February, known as the Lupercalia festival. Just as Christmas exists in December to offset the corresponding pagan holiday, some believe “the Christian church may have decided to celebrate Valentine’s feast day in the middle of February in an effort to ‘christianize’ celebrations of [Lupercalia] (The History of Valentine's Day).
Over the years, Valentine’s Day became a day to celebrate love and romance. This link between February 14th and love did not fully develop until the Rennaissance, when Romantic art and poetry set the stage for the holiday to follow (www.holidays.net). The 19th century saw the development of sending actually valentines. A young girl named Esther Howland is credited with first sending valentines in the United States, after receiving a valentine (in the paper form we know them today) from a friend overseas. “The earliest [valentine] in America was sent to Miss Howland in 1849…it had an elaborate border of fine lace paper and was decorated with green paper…” (First American Valentine). Her success in the Valentine card industry resulted int the devopment of the The New England Valentine Companty in the 1870s (www.jsbeads.com). Today, Valentine's Day has been labeled a "Hallmark Holiday," with a focus on greeting cards, flowers, chocolates, love, and romance.
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I was quite surprised at how difficult I found this assignment to be. There was plenty of information out on the internet concerning Valentine's Day, though it all gave conflicting stories. These various websites had some entirely different histories of the day, whether it was the multiple Christian martyrs or a pagan holiday. After surfing through a variety of websites, I found all sorts of varying time frames in which the "love and romance" essence of Valentine's Day came to the forefront.
Another problem I tended to encounter involved websites borrowing from one another. The first Valentines Day sites I visited had clearly taken their information from Wikipedia (usually without even referencing that fact), and I felt the need to skip over these pages and try to locate some new versions of the story. One technique I found useful involved Googling names or titles I found in these histories to see what arose. When I searched the name "Esther Howland" (a name I found tucked away in one website's history) a slew of websites concerning the early American origins of Valentines Day came back in the search. These were sites that I had not originally encountered on my original history search. This assignment exemplified that vast information sits out on the web, though emphasizes the fact that it can conflict and a consistent story can be difficult to locate.

A crowd gathers outside the New York Stock Exchange just after the devastating crash of late October 1929. Stocks plummeted, causing financial panic and further crashing of the system. This catastrophic event led to the worst depression ever faced by the American population. By the early 1930s, one quarter of the workforce was umemployed, and just as many were homeless. Library of Congress (Prints and Photographs Division).

The stock market crash and subsequent depression left many Americans homeless. This mid-1930s picture depicts an 18 year-old mother from Oklahoma, now homeless and penniless. Franklin D. Roosevelt Library & Museum.

"Hoovervilles" or shanty towns that appeared across the country amidst the Great Depression made for some disheartening photographs. This particular 1930s photo shows a man in one such town in Circleville, Ohio. The nickname "Hooverville" intended to mock the U.S. President in office at the outset of the Great Depression, Herbert Hoover, and his lacking efforts in restoring order and economic relief. Library of Congress (Prints and Photographs Division).

The inauguration of Franklin Delano Roosevelt brought new hope--and a New Deal--to the American people. Amidst the Great Depression, the hopeful FDR presented his New Deal policies and government programs as a way to pull Americans out of the economic depression. Theodor Horydczak took this picture at FDR's first inaugural on March 4, 1933 in Washington, D.C. Library of Congress (Prints and Photographs Division), Theodor Horydczak Collection.

As a part of Roosevelt's New Deal, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) provided work for America's young men. It sent them to help improve parks and forests, and quickly became one of the most popular New Deal programs. Here one such worker stands in the CCC's Jackson Camp (517). National Archives and Record Adminstration .