This collection has twenty-two greeting cards with archival illustrations, curated by our editors. The vintage imagery on these cards ranges in content and style. Some cards are beautiful, some are witty, but all are thought-provoking and memorable. These are perfect to have on hand to celebrate special occasions throughout the year. 

The cards are printed in England on an uncoated, light cream 300 GSM Italian paper, which is recyclable, biodegradable, and FSC certified. Each greeting card is 170 mm x 120 mm (approximately 5” x 7”) and blank inside, individually wrapped in a compostable wrapper made from plants, and paired with a 100% recycled, 110 GSM kraft envelope.

Read descriptions of each of the individual cards below. 

Winter Landscape
Greeting card of a color chart by American artist Emily Noyes Vanderpoel, adapted from Vanderpoel’s Color Problems: A Practical Manual for the Lay Student of Color (1902).

Johnson’s Dictionary Birthday
Birthday card with an image adapted from a page of Samuel Johnson’s Dictionary of 1755. Compiled by Johnson alone over a period of ten years, this dictionary is a towering achievement of scholarship and one of the most important books ever published, since for the first time “words are deduced from their originals and illustrated in their different significations by examples from the best writers.”

Gestures and Their Meanings
Greeting card with adapted illustrations (c.1910) depicting and defining hand gestures that are useful in public speaking and everyday conversation.

Lucky Charms
Lucky charms greeting card, adapted from a postcard illustrating a variety of good luck charms, c.1910.

Fireworks
Types of fireworks greeting card, adapted from the “Illustrated Catalogue of Day and Night Bombshells of the Hirayama Fireworks Co., Yokohama, Japan” (c.1883). The catalogue introduction states that “the illustrations in this new catalogue are inserted merely for the purpose of giving a rough representation of the fireworks, which include many newfangled pieces, it being impossible for an artist to represent the brilliancy and grandeur of the effect produced at the time of the explosion.” Courtesy Yokohama City Library.

Head over Heels
Gymnastics greeting card, or perhaps a “head-over-heels in love” Valentine’s Day card. Adapted from Tumbling for Amateurs, James Gwathmey (1921). Courtesy The Library of Congress.

Napoleon’s Retreat
Chess greeting card, adapted from Problems in Chess (1876), a privately published volume of puzzles, collected and mostly devised by John Wilkinson of Chicago. Many of the problems had previously appeared in various chess papers and magazines between 1858 and 1861. Courtesy The Library of Congress. Solution to the problem on reverse of card.

Heraldic Crowns
Greeting card illustrating types of royal crowns, adapted from An Introduction to Heraldry (18th edition, 1873) by the 18th-century heraldic engraver Hugh Clark.

Cabinet of Gems
Gemstones greeting card, adapted from The Cabinet of Gems; or, Vocabulary of Precious Stones, Coloured and Arranged According to Their Comparative Value: Together with a Description of the Largest Known Diamonds and Coloured Gems in the World, S. Batchelor (1840). Courtesy of the Gemological Institute of America.

Vegetable Garden
Greeting card illustrating the layout of a vegetable plot, adapted from The Principles of Vegetable-Gardening, Liberty Hyde Bailey (1901). Bailey was a well-known agricultural reformer, educator, and early proponent of environmentalism. This detailed layout of an urban vegetable garden shows how food production can flourish in the city. Courtesy University of California Libraries.

Chili Peppers
Greeting card illustrating different varieties of chili peppers and their plants, adapted from the Japanese agricultural encyclopedia Seikei Zusetsu (1804). Courtesy Leiden University Library.

Pencils
Greeting card illustrating artists’ pencils, adapted from A.W. Faber’s 1897 stationery catalogue.

The Muses
Greeting card illustrating the nine muses and their names (on reverse). In Greek mythology, the Muses were the nine daughters of Zeus, inspiring science, literature, and the arts. Adapted from Friedrich Johann Bertuch’s Bilderbuch für Kinder (1805). Hand-colored copperplate engraving.

Greens
Greeting card illustrating types of greens in Werner’s Nomenclature of Colours, adapted from Werner’s Nomenclature of Colours: With Additions, Arranged So as to Render It Highly Useful to the Arts and Sciences, Particularly Zoology, Botany, Chemistry, Mineralogy, and Morbid Anatomy: Annexed to Which Are Examples Selected from Well-Known Objects in the Animal, Vegetable, and Mineral Kingdoms (1821).

Blanc de Neige (Snow White)
Colors of snow greeting card, adapted from Colour Schemes for Identifying Flower, Foliage and Fruit Colours (1905). Courtesy of North Carolina State University Libraries.

Habit de Jardinier
Greeting card with gardening image. Adapted from Habit de jardinier, engraving by Nicolas de Larmessin II from his series Les costumes grotesques et les métiers (17th century). Garden Museum collection.

Silk
Greeting card illustrating vintage silk dyes, adapted from the catalogue The Aniline Colours of the Badische Anilin & Soda Fabrik…and Their Application on Wool, Cotton, Silk and Other Textile Fibres (1901). The Baden Aniline and Soda Factory, as it is known in English, or BASF (of cassette tape fame), is now the largest chemical company in the world.

Toe-Tology
Humorous greeting card illustrating types of feet and associated character traits, adapted from “Sixteen Feet in Profile, of Women and Men: A Parody of Phrenology.” Colored etching, c. 1820. The popular pseudoscience of phrenology, which attempted to determine character by analyzing bumps on the skull, influenced early psychiatry.

Knights
Greeting card with knights in armor. Illustration shows battlement armor (left) and “full” armor (right), adapted from Le moyen age et la renaissance, Paul Lacroix and Ferdinand Seré (1851).

Jardin Anglais
Greeting card illustrating the design of an English-style garden. Adapted from Victor Petit’s Parks and Gardens around Paris: A New Collection of Plans of Gardens and Small Parks, Drawn as the Crow Flies in the French, English, Swiss, etc. Genres (1860).

Footsie
Greeting card with tips on how to play the game of “footsie,” adapted and translated from a Norwegian postcard, c.1920, courtesy National Library of Norway.

Fruit 
Greeting card illustrating types of fruit. Adapted from the French encyclopedia Nouveau Larousse Illustré: dictionnaire universel encyclopédique (1898). A key on the back of the card gives fruit names.  

Fish
Greeting card featuring vintage fish illustrations. Adapted from Ichthyologie, ou, Histoire naturelle des poissons, Marcus Elieser Bloch (1796).