Invitations
The late seventeenth century saw the introduction of the formal
invitation. Prior to that, invitations were usually written to a specific
person for the purpose of notifying him about a funeral and asking that
the invitation be presented as a ticket. Formal invitations became popular
because they were usually not addressed to individuals, but instead served
as a general announcement of an upcoming event. They often began with a
heading such as: "Your attendance is respectfully solicited by," and
addressed to sir or madam.
The American Antiquarian Society has a collection of several hundred
invitations, dating from the 1750's through the 1880's. They
are mainly from the local area for events such as the 1850 Fireman's
Festival in South Framingham, Massachusetts, and the 1871 Woman Suffrage
Bazar in Boston. Other items included are wedding invitations, notices of
political events, civic celebrations, and memorials. Also part of the
collection is the Tinker Scrapbook Collection, donated by Edward Larocque
Tinker, which includes a group of Carnival Ball invitations issued in New
Orleans during Mardi Gras. The invitations collection is
housed in three boxes in the Graphic Arts Department.
-Terri Tremblay, Assistant Curator of Graphic Arts
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Rickards, Maurice, The Encyclopedia of Ephemera. New
York: Routledge,
2000.
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Invitation, from the Mayor of
Boston,
for services honoring President Lincoln
(1865)
For current information on the cataloging status of this and
other AAS collections, choose "Collection Access" below.
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