Celebrating Valentine’s Day at Special Collections

The purpose of The Compass Rose is to raise awareness of Special Collections' resources and to foster the use of these resources. The blog series also reports significant new programs, initiatives, and acquisitions of Special Collections.  

In celebration of Valentine’s Day, Special Collections is highlighting some holiday-themed items.

UTA Libraries’ Digital Gallery has over 76,000 images in its collections. Browse the photographs by category or use the search function to find a more specific image. The images below are from Valentine’s Days past.

In addition to candy, a staple of Valentine’s Day is the valentine itself. Special Collections has an extensive collection of postcards, some of which are holiday-themed. The Eva Moore Postcards Collection has several items that commemorate Valentine’s Day and Christmas. All the postcards illustrated below are postmarked 1909. The first postcard features a woman embracing a young man as her father shakes his finger. The words at the bottom read “Do you mean business young man or are you only kidding?” The second has an illustration of a man and woman with the rhyme “If kissing be a deadly sin / Excuse a poor beginner– / I’ll put my best endeavours in– / To be a hardened sinner!” For other postcards that Special Collections has featured on the Compass Rose, see Photographs Specialist Sara Pezzoni’s “12 Days of SPCO Holiday Greetings,” Metadata Librarian Stephanie Luke’s “Celebrating the Holidays at Special Collections,” and University and Labor Archivist Michael Barera’s “Digitized portion of Jenkins Garrett Texas Postcard Collection now on Wikimedia Commons, Wikipedia.”

In addition to these postcards, Special Collections has an advertisement for valentines that appeared in The Old Rough and Ready Almanac of 1849. The ad describes how a business named the Grand Depot of Cupid’s Archery “commissioned their old friends, Turner and Fisher, the celebrated projectors of valentines, to act in their behalf, and to officiate as the high priests of Love, Courtship and Matrimony.” Turner and Fisher appeal to “youths and maidens, who are suffering from an affection of the heart,” and among the many things they promise are “Palpitations of the heart, cured at a moment’s notice. An aching void, plugged up with the utmost despatch [sic]. Coquetry cured in ten minutes. Proud maidens rendered soft and tender on reasonable terms.”

While trading valentines is fun, nothing beats a traditional love letter. Special Collections has hundreds of letters in our archives. We would like to highlight two that we find particularly interesting. The first is a letter from Sam Houston, the second president of the Republic of Texas. On Valentine’s Day in 1839, Houston wrote a letter to Anna Raguet of Nacogdoches. He flatters Ragouet, writing that “With so much sensibility, intellect, and reflection, you are eminently qualified to render some noble fellow the most happy of beings.” He continues later in the letter that “I would be your Knighterrant, whenever you should so order it. Should you not decree some gentleman, the heart, and hand, I hope yet to see the day that I may attach your Glove to my beaver.” His elegant language notwithstanding, Raguet spurned Houston’s attention and married Houston’s former secretary of state, Dr. Robert Irion, whom Houston mentions in the last few paragraphs of the letter.

In 2020, Special Collections acquired the archive of Pinkie Harris, an African American woman who was born in Texas in 1885. Harris’ husband was drafted in World War I and disappeared in 1920. This letter from December 31, 1923 was sent to Harris by a Manuel Baragas, a suitor for her affection. The following transcription leaves the errors uncorrected: “Dear Baby I guess you think Ive forgotten you but Ive been sick & as ever I always remember you. So now don’t you do as Ive done. Forgive your Dady & write to him soon & I shure want to know how you are getting along from your Daddy that loves you best.” Unfortunately, our archivists have been unable to locate records concerning Baragas, so we can only guess at the outcome of this romance.

Finally, what would Valentine’s Day be without adorable cherubs? One might be forgiven for assuming that cherubs appear once a year to celebrate Valentine’s Day only to vanish until the next. However, cherubs are frequently depicted on maps, especially those from the 16^th and 17^th centuries. Special Collections has hundreds of maps, some of which feature illustrations of cherubic figures. Unlike biblical descriptions of cherubim as figures with four wings and four heads, cherubs in the tradition of Western artwork more commonly resembled putti (chubby children with wings) and cupids (putti carrying a bow and a quiver of arrows). On maps, cherubs often flank cartouches or appear as disembodied heads blowing wind. The images above are details of maps in our collections.

Special Collections wishes you a safe and happy Valentine’s Day!