According to the U.S. Greeting Card Association, approximately 190 million Valentine’s Day cards are exchanged annually, making Valentine’s Day one of the most popular card-sending holidays in the country.

Sending Valentine’s Day greets was popular even before the founding of Hallmark.  Frederick Mendel, a University of Illinois alum from 1914-15, kept Valentine’s postcards from his younger years–along with many other postcards–in a scrapbook dated 1907.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happy Valentine’s Day from Frederick Mendel and the University Archives!