The Art of the British Greeting Card: A Tradition of Thoughtful Expression
By Emma Lidzey
In Britain, greeting cards are sometimes thought of as the glue that holds us together, our very own Kula Ring (Malinowski 1922). While the rise of technology has swapped writing love letters with sending your partner a TikTok of cute cats, the phenomenon of greeting cards has not died! Fascinated by Cards' power to bring people together through an artistic medium, I was inspired to write this article, in which I will delve into the British history of cards and their social significance. I will examine what card designs can tell us about how pop culture and the intimate are intertwined, as well as how diversity becomes represented.
I first realized Britain’s inherent attachment to greeting cards when I lived in Barcelona, after having visited my girlfriend’s Iaia (grandmother) to learn to make Paella. When I told her I was going to give her grandmother a card to thank her for the fantastic experience, my idea instantly got shut down. I was told it was not a thing there, completely absent from the local culture. I could not fathom it. From then on, the absence of cards became more obvious to me. I looked to see if they appeared where I expected. Outside, there were no card shops like the ones you find on many British high streets. At Christmas, no cards were exchanged, but only presents with names scribbled on the wrapping. This lack of card exchange was so different from my home in Britain, where every Christmas, my parents would spend hours writing cards to send to old friends and family dotted around the country. When visiting a friend’s house, you could hardly ever miss the array of cards received proudly on display.
This led me to wonder where this culture of card giving in Britain came from. Central to the history of this tradition was the invention of the Uniform Penny Post in the 1840s. This system allowed people to send letters anywhere in the country for just one penny! The ease and cheapness of this system made sending letters much more accessible, therefore facilitating the circulation of cards. This card exchange is an example of Marcel Mauss’ (1990[1925]) gift theory . Famously, Mauss revealed how the act of gift giving was in no means neutral because it makes the receiver indebted to the giver, thus binding them in a relationship of reciprocity. This social network created by gift exchange is shown by the Kula Ring, made famous by Bronisław Malinowski (1922). The ritualized circulation of necklaces and armbands in opposite directions between islands in Milne Bay Province, Papua New Guinea strengthens alliances and social hierarchy between the different islands’ communities. Like the Kula ring, the circulation of greeting cards in Britain is an example of gift theory as their exchange maintains relationships across the country.
Another reciprocal aspect of the gift which helps explain the cards' social significance is what Mauss defines as its spirit. A force which must always be returned, like the Hau of the Maori taonga (treasures) returning to their origin in the forest via a reciprocated gift. This spirit can be seen in the emotional value of greeting cards: they have a seasonal design on the front and a message inside expressing sentiments for the recipient, sending love. The historical significance of cards in amorous relationships is reflected by epistolary relationships through history, like Percy Bysshe Shelley and Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, who communicated their love to one another through poetic letters. Even when the message is not so poetic or printed rather than handwritten, the card still embodies the spirit of care. The simple act of sending the card shows that someone cares for you enough to remember you, pick out a suitable card design for you, sign and send it for the occasion: your birthday, or a nationally celebrated day such as Father’s and Mother’s Day, Christmas or Valentine’s. As the saying goes, “it's the thought that counts”. Then, like Mauss’ gift, the spirit of care expressed in the card is expected to be returned with another card at the next special occasion.
Birthday cards
After pondering the history and significance of cards, I set off to a card shop to examine what else I could understand from further analysis of card designs. After a couple of minutes browsing, something became clear: the cards on sale were utterly general. For example, many of the cards in both birthday sections were images of cats, dogs and birds with party hats on. Such an image is quite impersonal, not tailored to any niche interests beyond the love of animals, for example. This is surely a tactic used by companies to make their products vague enough that everyone can relate to them, and therefore, increase sales. Moreover, all the cards shared the same general purpose: celebrating typical festivities like Christmas, Easter and Valentine’s. This could symbolize how cards enforce a normative temporality, dictating a general course of events which one must celebrate in their life. Therefore, the generality of cards shapes our personal lives by making us fit into impersonal societal norms.
Another example of how the general meets with the personal in greeting cards is the use of pop culture references. A selection of cards bore the faces of celebrities like RuPaul or Charli XCX, giving your loved ones their birthday wishes. They can be used to strengthen ties, for example, the Charli XCX card could prove to your friend - look! I know you like Brat! These cards combine public trends while maintaining personal relationships, showing how pop culture finds its way into personal expressions of affection. Cards’ mediation of shared representations and individual desires echoes what Karen Strassler (2010) calls “refraction”. This term describes how photographs become altered by personal narratives when popular photographic iconographies like state ID or studio photographs are used by individuals to achieve their personal desires. In effect, tying individuals into broader historical trajectories and contemporary narratives. Perhaps greeting cards tropes like celebrity designs could similarly be described as refracting pop culture for personal uses, thus intertwining the two.
Valentine’s Day cards
There was nothing particularly odd about the card selection until I turned to the Valentine’s Day cards and saw that none of the cards represented the LGBTQIA+ community. There were cards that said lovely comments like “you might just be my perfect person ever”, ones that made funny jokes about sex and genitals and pictured talking couples, but all of them were all either gender neutral or heterosexual. To my disappointment, there was not even one queer Valentine’s Day card, suggesting that although cards have survived the start of the tech era, at least in this shop, they are not up to date on diversity representation.
One reason for this lack of queer representation could be due to low demand, given that 80% of card buyers are women, mostly among the middle-aged and older-aged groups (HMG Pop Up Paper 2024; Mintel 2023), and that people aged 16 to 24 years are the most likely to identify as queer (ONS 2023). Perhaps the demographic of card readers would be less personally inclined to buy LGBT cards, and that’s why there is a lack. Indeed, the card designs which fill shops cater for this middle-aged female target audience, depicting a heteronormative temporality of getting married, moving house, having children, etc. However, I think that lack of demand is no excuse for lack of representation and its negative consequences. It erases the existence of older queer people who may want to send LGBT cards, as well as young people who would like to receive a supportive LGBT card from a relative or friend. Such erasure is very damaging for the LGBT community who already face denial of their identity from many angles. Therefore, even a little bit of representation in card shops would be a positive step towards fighting against the erasure and discrimination of queer people.
Although the market of card designs has a bit of catching up to do with issues of representation, I think that the culture of greeting cards is an overall positive phenomenon, in its capacity to link people to their loved ones and wider pop-culture through an artistic medium. I would encourage everyone to send cards, especially ones you have made yourself or bought from a small business, because it keeps us connected and the art world going round. Such an act feels a lot more personal than a text, and the effort never goes unnoticed. So go card-crazy! It will only make us all closer and put a smile on someone's face.
Bibliography
HMG Pop Up Paper (2024). A Closer Look: How Many Greeting Cards Are Sold Annually in the UK - HMG Pop Up. [online] HMG Pop Up. Available at: https://hmgpopup.com/a-closer-look-how-many-greeting-cards-are-sold-annually-in-the-uk/.
Malinowski, B. (1922). Argonauts of the Western Pacific: an account of Native Enterprise and adventure in the Archipelagos of Melanesian New Guinea. London, Routledge.
Mauss, M. (1990[1925]). The Gift: The Form and Reason for Exchange in Archaic Societies (W.D. Halls, Trans.; 1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203407448
Mintel (2023). Less than half Brits aged under 35 buy Christmas cards. [online] Mintel. Available at: https://www.mintel.com/press-centre/less-than-half-of-brits-aged-under-35-buy-christmas-cards/.
Office for National Statistics (2023). Sexual orientation: age and sex, England and Wales - Office for National Statistics. [online] ONS. Available at: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/culturalidentity/sexuality/articles/sexualorientationageandsexenglandandwales/census2021.
Strassler, K. (2010) Refracted visions: Popular photography and national modernity in Java. Durham NC: Duke University Press.