Finding Aid to the Duane Weston Antique Valentine Collection
1807-1984
BASC 18
Finding aid composed by Andrea V. Grimes; collection organized and processed by Freya Channing
Book Arts & Special Collections, San Francisco Public Library
2023
100 Larkin Street
San Francisco 94102
Telephone: 415-557-4560
bookarts@sfpl.org
Contributing Institution:
Book Arts & Special Collections, San Francisco Public Library
100 Larkin Street
San Francisco, CA 94102
(415) 557-4560
bookarts@sfpl.org
Title: Duane Weston Antique Valentine Collection
Creator:
Weston, Duane, 1916?-1988
Identifier/Call Number: BASC 18
Physical Description:
8 cartons, 2 oversized flat boxes
(11 Cubic Feet)
Date (inclusive): 1807-1984
Date (bulk): (bulk 1807-1890)
Abstract: This collection contains more than 2,300 Valentines, 1,143 Christmas and New Year's cards, 214 friendship cards, and 286 miscellaneous
cards, as well as Valentine envelopes, paper lace, and decorative paste-ons. The collection also includes exhibition materials
and correspondence.
Physical Location: The collection is stored on site.
Languages Represented: Collection materials are in English.
Conditions Governing Access
Collection is open for research and is available for use during Book Arts & Special Collections hours.Collections that are
stored offsite should be requested 48 hours in advance.
Publication Rights
Many materials are fragile and may not be photocopied. Copyright has not been assigned to the San Francisco Public Library.
All requests for permission to publish or quote from materials must be submitted in writing to Book Arts & Special Collections.
Permission for publication is given on behalf of the San Francisco Public Library as the owner of the physical items.
Preferred Citation
[Identification of items], Duane Weston Antique Valentine Collection (BASC 18), Marjorie G. and Carl W. Stern Book Arts &
Special Collections, San Francisco Public Library.
Provenance
The Duane Weston Antique Valentine Collection was a bequest to the Library's Book Arts & Special Collections Center in 1988
from Duane Weston, who assembled a collection of Valentines over a period of years from 1945-about 1978. He first became acquainted
with Valentines on a visit in 1945 to the San Francisco Bay Area and later to W. Parker Lyon's Pony Express Museum near Pasadena.
He caught the collecting bug, eventually acquiring more than 2,300 nineteenth century Valentines.
Related Materials
The Duane Weston Antique Valentine Collection demonstrates the scope of nineteenth century lettering and handwriting, as well
as contemporary printing technology and methods used in the making of this distinctive form of ephemera. Researchers are encouraged
to discover additional resources about the lettering arts in the Richard Harrison Collection of Calligraphy & Lettering and
the history of printing ephemera in the Robert Grabhorn Collection on the History of Printing & the Development of the Book.
Conservation Note
During processing, most of the collection was rehoused in archival boxes, with a few original non-archival boxes remaining
from the donor.
Materials Transferred
Most books in this collection were cataloged and transferred to Book Arts & Special Collections or the Business, Science &
Technology Center at San Francisco Public Library. Published items already in our collections were sent to the Friends of
the San Francisco Public Library.
Biography
Duane Weston, formerly Eugene Estes Thurston, was born in or near Detroit, Michigan, approximately 1916. He first became acquainted
with Valentines on a visit in 1945 to the San Francisco Bay Area and later to W. Parker Lyon's Pony Express Museum near Pasadena.
Educated at the Pratt Institute, graduating with a General Art Degree, 1930; and Columbia University (1931), Weston (under
the name of Eugene Thurston) was employed as a lettering artist and graphic designer by the industrial design firm of George
Switzer, 336 Central Park West, New York (1937-1938?); later, with industrial designer and commercial artist Egmont Arens,
480 Lexington Avenue, New York (1939). About 1950, he moved to San Francisco, where he subsequently worked as a lettering
artist and graphic designer with the commercial art studio Shawl Nyeland & Seavy (1954+). He was a colleague and friend of
Leo Holub, (1916-2010) San Francisco photographer, lithographer, and teacher. Thurston legally changed his name to Duane Weston
in 1978.
Weston began collecting nineteenth century Valentines in 1945, acquiring more than 2,300 specimens, and to a lesser degree,
other holiday greeting cards. His collection was exhibited at venues throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, including Samuels
Jewelers, 865 Market Street, San Francisco (1955), the Rudolph Schaeffer School of Design (1959), the DeYoung Museum (1953;
1979), the City of Paris Department Store (1970), and San Francisco Public Library (1978). Duane Weston bequeathed the collection
to the San Francisco Public Library in 1987; he died in San Francisco, April 23, 1988.
Scope and Contents
The collection contains a wide variety of Valentine formats made popular during the nineteenth century: lace paper, fringed,
pop-ups and movables, comic, "vinegar" cards, and ornamental; assembled from scraps and seashells, hand colored, embossed,
and chromolithographed cards. Valentines were often handmade or manufactured, sometimes by a famous designer. The collection
includes envelopes, as well as parts, scraps, ornaments: decorative paste-ons for the making of Valentines. Two scrapbooks
may be found in the collection: Valentines manufactured by Louis Prang & Company, Boston, Massachusetts; and the scrapbook
of Bessie Fitch Bedell, a collection of assorted paste-ons and visiting cards.
Greeting cards with other holiday themes are included in the collection: 1,143 Christmas and New Year's cards, 214 friendship
cards, nineteenth century friendship hairwork pieces, and 286 miscellaneous cards. The collection also includes exhibition
materials and donor correspondence.
Please note: Images used in the nineteenth century by Victorian designers and manufacturers have demonstrably changed and
may be considered offensive to twenty-first century readers. What might have been considered humorous or comically risqué
to Victorians may now be considered sexist, misogynistic, racist, gender phobic, and ageist. The collection presents a picture
of the mores, culture, and society of a specific population exchanging a popular form of greeting card.
Arrangement
This collection is arranged in 5 series. Series 1: Correspondence; Series 2: Writings and artwork; Series 3: Research and
subject files; Series 4; Exhibitions; Series 5: Valentines, holiday cards, and trade cards.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Valentine's Day
Valentines
Valentines -- Specimens
Collectors and collecting
Greeting cards
Christmas cards.
New Year cards
Three-dimensional greeting cards
English wit and humor
American wit and humor
Cruikshank, George, 1792-1878
Cruikshank, Robert, 1789-1856
Bartolozzi, Francesco, 1727-1815
Mansell, Joseph, 1803-1874
Greenaway, Kate, 1846-1901
Crane, Walter, 1845-1915
Howland, Esther Allen, 1828-1904
Series 1:
Correspondence
1937-1939
1941-1942
1946
1949-1981
Scope and Contents
This series contains professional and personal correspondence, including character references for Duane Weston, discussions
of valentine exhibitions, and the valentine collection.
Arrangement
This series is arranged alphabetically by name and further arranged chronologically.
box 1, folder 3
Averille, Ester C.
Between 1950-1978
box 1, folder 7
Brown, Doris ; Brown, Lewis F.
1979-1981
box 1, folder 9
Detroit Historical Society
1956
box 1, folder 10
Cards received
1954, 1956, 1977
General
Includes a "Bon voyage and happy birthday" card designed and illustrated by Robert L. Graham
box 1, folder 14
Means, Carroll Allen
1963
box 1, folder 17
Switzer, George
1937-1938
box 1, folder 18
Postmarked envelopes
1950-1951, 1953, 1958, 1977
General
Contains 6 postmarked envelopes addressed to Eugene Thurston and/or Hardy Langworthy.
Series 2:
Writings and artwork
between 1930-1950, 1965
undated
Scope and Contents
This series contains writings by Duane Weston, and drawings and photographs created by Duane Weston or other artists.
Arrangement
This series is arranged by type and further arranged chronologically.
box 1, folder 20
The history of the paper Valentine, Old Time New England
1950
General
Typescript and publication.
box 1, folder 21
Drawings and lettering
undated
Language of Material:
English
.
box 1, folder 22
Photographs of Duane Weston (Eugene Thurston)
between 1930-1949, 1965
Language of Material:
English
.
box 1, folder 23
Landscape snapshots, b&w
1935
1937
Series 3:
Research and subject files
1800-1984, undated
Scope and Contents
This series contains collections of many different types of art and includes botanical prints, art postcards, and material
related to valentines including love tokens, Victorian hairwork, and small press printings. Also included are newspaper and
magazine clippings primarily about the history of valentines and other holiday cards, and other collections or collectors.
Arrangement
This series is arranged by type and further arranged chronologically.
box 1, folder 24-25
Art photographs
undated
General
Contains photographs of sculpture, paintings, and drawings, many from the collections at The Fogg Museum of Art and the Brooklyn
Museum. Includes works of Rodin, Da Vinci, Ingres, Tsao Jun, Wang Hu, Seki Shuko, and Kiosai.
box 1, folder 26
Art postcards
undated
General
Postcards depicting artwork of sculpture and paintings. Artists include Michelangelo, Rodin, Florence Lundborg, and Picasso.
box 1, folder 27-28
Plates, botanical
undated
box 1, folder 29
Plates, fungi
1800-1801
General
Plates from Coloured figures of English fungi or mushrooms by James Sowerby.
box 1, folder 30
Plates, sea shells
undated
box 1, folder 31
George Barbier prints
1921, 1925
General
From Falbalas et Fanfreluches. Almanach des modes.
box 1, folder 32
Bartolozzi's cupids
between 1764-1810
General
Francesco Bartolozzi
box 1, folder 33
Victorian [friendship] hairwork
1848-1861
box 1, folder 34
Love tokens and miscellaneous art
circa 1850-1900
box 1, folder 34-38
Printed ephemera
circa 1900-1980
box 1, folder 39
Printed ephemera
undated
General
Harold Berliner cards and bookmarks
box 1, folder 40
Printed ephemera
circa 1930
General
Pynson Printers Inc.
box 9, oversize-folder 3
Early printed leaves
undated
box 1, folder 48
Clippings
1980, 1983-1984
Series 4:
Exhibitions
1949-1988
Scope and Contents
This series contains material related to exhibitions of this collection and includes correspondence, newspaper clippings,
and photographs.
Arrangement
This series is arranged by type and further arranged chronologically.
box 1, folder 49
Exhibits and lectures
1953, 1957, undated
box 1, folder 50
Los Angeles Public Library
1949
box 1, folder 51
San Francisco Public Library
1978, 1980, 1988
box 1, folder 52
De Young Museum
1953-1954
box 1, folder 53
De Young Museum, photographs
1953
box 1, folder 54
Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, Downtown Center
1978-1980
box 1, folder 55
Clippings
1951, 1953, 1955, 1957
box 1, folder 56-58
Photographs
1953, circa 1959, undated
Series 5:
Valentines, holiday cards, and trade cards
circa 1807-1890
1945-1978
Scope and Contents
This series makes up the bulk of the collection and contains over 2,300 Valentines, 1,143 Christmas and New Year's cards,
214 friendship cards, and 286 miscellaneous cards, as well as Valentine envelopes, paper lace, and decorative paste-ons. There
are inventories of the collection created by Duane Weston as well as occasional notes with some of the items detailing provenance
or historic information. Of note are the comic and "vinegar" valentines.
Arrangement
This series is arranged type and has been kept as close to the original arrangement by the creator as possible.
box 2, folder 1-3
Valentine inventory lists
1945-1978
box 2, folder 4
Birthday cards inventory lists
1945-1978
box 2, folder 5-6
Christmas cards inventory lists
1946-1978
Language of Material:
English
.
box 2, folder 7
Friendship, sentiment, and remembrance cards inventory lists
1946-1982
box 2, folder 9-10
Comic valentines: Moveable
box 2, folder 11
Comic valentines: Long folding
oversize-box 9, oversize-folder 4
Comic valentines, oversized
box 2, folder 20-22
Valentines: Despondent lovers or Unrequited love series
box 2, folder 23
Valentines, James Kendrew
box 2, folder 25
Valentines, Marks and Sons
box 2, Folder 28
Valentines, wartime
1810, 1861-1865
General
This file contains
Sailor's Farewell
attributed to Francesco Bartolozzi, and two civil war era valentines, 1861-1865.
box 8
Holiday cards and trade cards
