Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 292, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 December 1910 — CHRISTMAS CARD’S FATHER. [ARTICLE]

CHRISTMAS CARD’S FATHER.

British Artist Originated This Form of Greeting In 1844. Some day surely a grateful mono ment will be erected to the memory of W. A. Dobson, the parent of the Christ mas card, for he was a true herald of peace and good will to the world and no small benefactor to commerce, says a writer in Tit-Bits. In 184-1 Mr. Dobson, who later became a famous member of the Royal academy, was a young’man earning a modest income as master of the government School of Design at Birmingham. One evening in December instead of writing his usual letter of . Christmas good wishes to a friend it occurred to him to substitute a pictorial greeting, and, taking a piece of card about twice as large as a modern postcard, he began to draw on it In the center of the three panels into which he divided his design he sketch ed a family group raising glasses to the health of distant friends amid a seasonable environment of holly and mistletoe, while on each side of this festal scene he flrew a picture of a deed of charity. This card Mr. Dobson dispatched to his friend, giving it no further thought The friend, however, was delighted wittr his novel and artistic Christmas greeting and showed- it everywhere proudly, to the equal admiration of his acquaintances Everybody begged for a similar card, and in the following December the amiable Mr. Dobson etched another design and this time had it lithographed and sent out copies by the score. In the following year he had several imitators, and the Christmas card was at last launched on the tide of popular favor, although even then if Mr Dobson had been told that his modest card of 1844 would have 40.000.000 descendants sixty-five years later in Great Britain alone be would probably have thrown up his hands in amazement and incredulity.