In
Leap Years it was
permissible for
women to ask men to
marry them, the
unifying
theme of these
cards. Leap Year cards tend to be rarer
than most holiday cards,
since the holiday only
fell once every four years. Most date from
1908 or 1912,
although some were produced
in
1904, and production continued in 1916 and
beyond.
Many
famous postcard artists designed
Leap Year cards, including
Cavally,
Curtis,
Dwig,
Gibson,
Hutaf,
Ryan,
Spurgin,
Wellman
and many others.
I learned a great deal about Leap Year
history and Leap Year postcards from the
following article: Roy Nuhn, "Rare As a
Bachelor in February." According
to Nuhn,
"nearly 30 different
publishers--all but a handful of them American--produced more
than 40 different
sets. Upward of 250 different cards are
known" (25). When a
fellow
collector and I got together and compared our
cards, I found 369 different
Leap Year
cards!
This page, and
the pages therein, will show a
selection of the various series of
Leap
Year cards I have found over
the years. I am still learning &
collecting, so
feel free to
contact
me with any updates, particularly about publishers.
Deborah Hyland
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