Dream on My Valentine, comic valentine, Lusk, WY, 1911

About this postcard

The comic valentine shows a mustachioed man asleep on a pillow, mouth open, against a black background. His dream floats above him: a kneeling woman in prayer with a red heart, a woman in a red flowered hat and white fur collar, a crying baby's head, two loose buttons, and a bespectacled woman holding up a pair of button-trimmed trousers. The caption reads "DREAM ON MY VALENTINE." Comic valentines grew from the nineteenth-century vinegar valentine, a teasing or insulting card sent as a joke. By the early 1900s they were a common, inexpensive way to mark February 14, often exchanged among friends and schoolmates rather than sweethearts. The card was mailed from Iowa to Lusk, Wyoming, in 1911, when Lusk was a small railroad and ranching center. John's note to Robert is a schoolboy's message rather than a lover's.