The Charles Dickens Museum is helping to tell the story of the heritage of Christmas cards. The media has been quick to pick up on news that the Museum now has one of the world’s first printed Christmas cards (produced by Sir Henry Cole back in 1843) on show as part of a new exhibition, together with an original proof of the card design.
The reason the Museum was keen to display the card was that Sir Henry Cole produced the card in the same year that Charles Dickens published A Christmas Carol.
Quoted in The Guardian, museum curator Louisa Price said: “This was a really important year for the development of the modern Christmases today.”
The exhibition, Beautiful Books: Dickens and the Business of Christmas, runs at the novelist’s former London home, now the museum, until 19 April.
Top: One of the original Henry Cole Christmas cards is owned by PG’s Jakki Brown.
