It's A Small World:
Valentines from the Ruth C. Ottley Collection

January 14-February 14, 2010

The remarkable scope of valentines in The Haggin Museum’s collection allows staff to present unique and focused mini-displays. This year’s theme was chosen by museum intern Silvia Guzmán, who assisted in the Library/Archive this past fall.

Guzmán, a University of the Pacific student, has great interest in world communities and foreign languages, resulting in this year’s mini-display featuring countries and cultures from around the world.

Guzmán found it interesting, “to see how the different cultures were perceived and how the valentines reflect those beliefs by choosing certain features from those cultures.”

The cards in this display were created in only two countries: Germany and the United States. However, the valentines highlight the countries of China, France, Greece, Ireland, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands and the American colonies. They range from loving verse to silly wordplay puns and vary in form and style. The earliest love note is a hand-painted Pennsylvania Dutch letter from 1798. The most recent is a Spanish language Hallmark card from the 1990s. In between are nearly two centuries of romantic missives for museum visitors to enjoy.

This mini-display was created from the Ruth C. Ottley valentine collection. The collection was assembled by Mrs. Ottley over 50 years of avid research. The Haggin Museum wishes to thank her husband, Allen Ottley, for generously donating the collection to the museum.