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Esther Allen Howland was born in 1828 at 16 Summer Street in Worcester, Massachusetts. She was a pioneer in the American valentine manufacturing industry. It was after her graduation from Mount Holyoke College, in 1847, that she received her first English valentine. Fascinated with the idea of making similar valentines, sheimported the necessary paper lace and floral decorations from England.
She began taking orders for valentines, and was surprised to discover a demand for more than she could make by herself. She then recruited friends to assist her, and issued her first advertisement in a Worcester paper, The Daily Spy, on Feb. 5, 1850. The assembly line operation that began in her home eventually led to a thriving business grossing $100,000 annually. She retired in 1881, selling her business to the George C. Whitney Company.
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