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.