Vintage Elkridge Holiday Cards (PHOTOS)

These holiday cards are part of the Elkridge history collection in a home on Main Street.

The Brumbaugh House, at 5825 Main Street, is the headquarters of the Elkridge Heritage Society—a local nonprofit dedicated to the past, present and future of Elkridge—containing these vintage Christmas cards and hundreds of other objects.

One posterboard with the holiday card collection reads as follows:

THE ORIGIN OF CHRISTMAS CARDS
On Dec. 9th, 1842, Wm. Maw Egley Jr. designed what is the first Christmas card. The message on this card which is preserved in the British Museum reads "Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to You." In 1942 the U.S. greeting card industry honored the 100th anniversary of this card.

Bavarian born Louis Prang is credited with designing the first American card in Boston. In 1873 he designed and reproduced for his family a card autographed by Charles Dickens. Cards did not go on general sale in the U.S. till 1875.

The practice of sending Christmas cards was frowned upon by denominations such as the Baptists, Methodists, Amish and Lutherans. The Roman Catholics and Episcopalians deviated from this view, and by 1900 general acceptance became the norm, though many still used religious rather than secular themes. The winter scenes complete with Santa, holly, snow, reindeer, elves and the like seems to have been used prominantly in Germany.

Hallmark Greeting cards has sponsored the artistic design of cards, and in 1949 and 1955 there were 14,000 artists competing for the prizes offered by this firm.

Today cards are exchanged, but the increasing cost of postage, and the more general use of the phone...has limited the practice to some extent. 

Merry Christmas to All.

Want to see for yourself what's in Elkridge's past? There's an  on Tuesday, Dec. 27.