Evening star., 1947-11-30
lust Between
Ourselves
BY Philip n. Love-


above, the first such greeting OF
which there Is any record, was
designed by q 1s-year English
boy in 1842.
william Nav Egley was his name,
and he designed the card while
working as an apprentice to Lon
don engraver He printed 100 copies,
using black ink on white paper, and
sent them to his friends. Though
the original is now on exhibition
in the British Museum, 1t brought
its designer neither fame nor riches,
apparently. for nothing is known
of his later life.
The scenes depicted by Egley are
typical Yuletide activities of the
early Victorian period, You will
have no difficulty recognizing the
dancing party, the holiday feast and
the skating scene, but other parts
of the design may need bit OF ex-
planation.
The crowd in the lower left-hand
corner is milling around q Punch
and Judy show. In the scene to
the right of this, soup is being
distributed 10 the poor. The other
group at the bottom OF the card.
in the right-hand corner, Is singing
carols.
In the dinner scene. the blob on
the table is, of course. the tradi-
tional plum pudding. And in case
you're wondering about the dancers,
they are doing the Roger de Cow
erly," an old English country dance
named for a popular literary char
acter.
Four years after Egley sent out
that first printed greeting. Sir Henry
Cole asked an artist friend. j. C..
Horsley, to design Christmas card
for him. The engraving featured q
decorative trellis covered with q
grapevine inclosing two small illus
trations of acts of charity, plus q
| larger panel picturing a gay fam
lily party at which every one was
holding q glass filled with wine. Sir
Henry had a thousand copies sent
to his friends.
Some OF the cards fell into the
hands of temperance crusaders.
however, and they charged that the
design promoted wine-bibbing"
They raised such q ruckus. In fact.
that Sir Henry never sent another
Christmas card.
~
In the United States. the first
Christmas card was issued by r. Il.
Pease of Albany. N Y, to advertise
his store. It showed family group,
toys, q holiday dinner and o was
sail bowl. Since 1t was not dated
and Pease was in business from
1884 to 1855, there is q possibility
that 1t preceded Egley's greeting.
However, Louis Prang. = Boston
photographer. is known as the
Father OF the American Christmas
Card" He published his first greet
ings in 1874, and within few years
they were being sold all over the
United States.
Prang's cards, reproduced In A.
many as 20 coiors. were as beauti-
iul as any issued today. They pic
tured few OF the traditional Yuletids
scenes, however, running instead to
designs featuring animals, birds.
children playing, harvest scenes,
and spring flowers. Many were Of
large size and trimmed with luxu-
rious silk fringe. They sold for sew
eral dollars each.
In London, meanwhile, the pub
fishing firm of Charles Goodall Il
Sons began issuing cards which soon
became popular. The Goodalls put
out their first greetings in 1862. and
within the next 20 years Queen Vic
toria received from her consort,
Prince Albert, the first Christmas
tree in England, and the writings
Of Charles Dickens helped trans
form the Yuletide into gayer sea-
son than it had ever been before.
Today, the custom which william
Egley is credited with having
started is an outstanding feature Of
the Christmas festivities. The COM
ing holiday season. the National
Association Of Greeting Card Pub
fishers estimates, will bring an ex-
change of about 1,500 900 900 cards
by Americans-an average Of more
than 40 greetings per family.
You and your family will be rep
resented among those ~ billion
cards, of course. The Post Once
Department urges that any cards
you plan to send to relatives and
friends outside the District be
mailed by December 10. Those to
be delivered within the area served
by the Washington City Post Once
should be in the mail by the 18th.
If you put of your mailings be-
yond those dates>the Post ONCE will
do its best, ~ 1t always does. but
you will be trusting more to luck
than to sound planning.