May fortune's lantern burn serene: An analysis of golden age Halloween postcards as middle-class promotional culture

Collecting Halloween postcards has become increasingly popular in modern times (Hughes & Kinsella, 1998; Nicholson, 1994). A quick search of the auction website eBay at any given moment returns thousands of Halloween postcards available for auction or purchase. While the demand and value of postcards continues to wane, the demand and value of Halloween postcards from the early twentieth century is high, with some of the rarest postcards fetching hundreds of dollars.

Dating from approximately 1900 to 1920 and aided by a rise in mass production and mass distribution, the golden age of postcards coincided with the introduction of the middle class and increases in mass consumption in the United States. As the middle class grew, a renegotiation of the power structure between men and women ensued (Gifford, 2013, 2016; Simmons, 2003). Due to the changes in the power dynamic between the genders, women not only began to network outside of the home but also participated in the creation and dissemination of sociocultural norms.

As women became responsible for purchasing their households' goods and services, many agreed they were becoming the country's primary purchasers (Golia, 2016; Hirshon, 2020; Williams, 2017). This newfound responsibility helped women express themselves in ways they had been unable to do so before. Sending turn of the century postcards became a way for women to firmly establish and promote their importance while communicating how they desired to see their world.

Antithetical to the popularity of golden age postcards' is the seemingly innocuous nature of the ephemera. The mass adoption of holiday postcard exchange by middle-class women during this time justifies postcards finding their place as an extension of the turn of the century promotional culture. Extending beyond advertising and marketing, promotional culture has come to encompass all types of messaging meant to influence society including communications associated with public relations, propaganda, entertainment, and the news, to name a few (Wernick, 1988).

As cultural artifacts, golden age postcards are emblematic of the sociocultural values that were introduced and perpetuated in the early twentieth century. This study aims to illustrate that golden age Halloween postcards intended to serve as a means of empowerment for early middle-class women as has been posited by Daniel Gifford in his American Holiday Postcards, 1905–1915: Imagery and Context (2013). In addition, this study will also illustrate the unspoken fears that troubled these women. Though not limited to the following, these unspoken fears include failing to find love and marriage and failing to keep children at a high level of society.

In an effort to emulate the elite-class's tradition of exchanging Christmas and Valentine's Day greeting cards, sending postcards became popular among the middle class during the turn of the century (Shank, 2004). Inexpensive postage and the middle-class's expansion led to a meteoric rise in postcard adoption. As postcards' popularity increased, publishers expanded their offerings to include holidays beyond Christmas and Valentine's Day, including Halloween (Schmidt, 1991; Shank, 2004).

A thematic content analysis of Halloween postcards postmarked between 1901 and 1920 was utilized for this study. The goal of the analysis was to examine the prevalence of existing themes found within the images of golden age Halloween postcards (Berg, 2008). The dichotomous, categorical variables used in this study required the data be analyzed using frequency tables and cross-tabulations. These tests were carried out utilizing the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). Developed by IBM, SPSS is a statistical software that is used to analyze and model datasets.

Rituals that meant to divine an individuals' prospects in life and in love played a significant role in Halloween festivities since the time of the Druids and Celts. Some of these rituals emigrated to the United States with the influx of Irish immigrants in the mid-1800s, and the more popular rituals can be found illustrated in golden age Halloween postcards. Given the focus on the importance of marriage during the early twentieth century, one of the most common divinations performed was seeing a future spouse or love's face in a mirror by candlelight at the stroke of midnight on Halloween (Figure 2).

The mirror ritual was so prevalent that it could be practiced in different settings utilizing different elements. Participants could stand, be seated, or walk up or down the stairs forward or backward. On certain occasions, the participant might eat an apple from the tip of a knife, eat an unsalted hard-boiled egg or comb their hair while looking into the mirror. In one version, the candle was replaced by moonlight. Even the mirror changed depending on need. In some instances, a full-length mirror might be used while in other a handheld mirror sufficed. The commonalities in this ritual, however, are the mirror, midnight on Halloween, light and, most importantly, the future spouse's face. This is why it comes as no surprise that the top two themes for rituals found in this study are candle (n = 130; 20.2 percent) and mirror (n = 45; 7 percent) (Table 1).

While candles were often used in Halloween rituals, it is worth noting that the prominence of candles during autumnal festivities extends beyond divinations. This accounts for why candles significantly outnumber mirrors in this study's analysis. From ancient times through the mid-1800s bonfires were lit on the hillsides in Ireland, Scotland, and Wales on October 31 to celebrate the ending summer season and to ask God for protection through the upcoming year (Kelley, 1919). As the populations grew and the customs associated with lighting bonfires began to die, individuals started to light candles in their stead to honor the waning sun and God (Figure 3).

Similar to candles, apples played a prominent role in early Halloween celebrations and are found frequently on Halloween postcards, including those in this study (n = 127; 19.7 percent). Being both plentiful and a symbol of immortality and temptation, apples are an integral part of several divination rituals. While bobbing for apples eventually became a source of merriment for children during autumnal festivities, in the early twentieth-century apple bobbing or apple ducking was a means for predicting one's future love (Figure 4). As such, apple bobbing (n = 35; 5.4 percent) was found the most frequently in the sample. Apple bobbing was followed by snap apple (n = 22; 3.4 percent), a game that preceded apple bobbing which required an individual bite into an apple that was hung from a string to predict one's future love (Figure 5). The final apple ritual was the apple peel test (n = 24; 3.7 percent). This test required an individual peel an apple in one long piece and throw the peel over their left shoulder (Figure 6). When the individual turned to observe the peel, it would spell the first initial of the individual's future spouse or love's first name or the individual's future last name.

Based on Gifford's argument regarding the role of witches as an empowerment tool for middle-class women, this study aimed to understand the frequency with which beautiful and sexy witches and witches in general could be found illustrated on early twentieth-century postcards (2013, 2016). In this study's sample, witches were identified on 32.1 percent (n = 207) of the postcards. Postcards with witches were coded based on whether the witch was ugly, old, young, beautiful or sexy. Ugly (n = 128; 19.8 percent) accounted for the most frequent attribute followed by old (n = 95; 14.7 percent). Although young (n = 89; 13.8 percent) was found almost as frequently as old, beautiful (n = 34; 5.3 percent) and sexy (n = 14; 2.2 percent) occurred the least frequently. In instances, in which the physical attributes of a witch could not be discerned, for example, the witch's face could not be seen, the witch was simply coded as a witch (Figure 2).

Given the precarious nature of the middle-class's standing in society during the turn of the century, this study aimed to understand the importance of individual expectations. Not only was the frequency of adults and children within the sample measured, but a cross-tabulation analysis was run to measure the significance among each group and their expected social outcomes. For adults, women (n = 80; 12.4 percent) could be found the most frequently in the sample followed by women and men together (n = 66; 10.2 percent). Men were found the least frequently in only 0.9 percent (n = 6) of the sample. Girls and boys (n = 85; 13.2 percent) were most often found together, followed closely by boys alone (n = 82; 12.7 percent), which were found more often than girls alone (n = 51; 7.9 percent). While a crossover of adults and children was rare, it happened twice in the sample when a woman and child were displayed together. This pairing comprised of 0.3 percent of the study sample.

A cross-tabulation was run for adults to measure the significance of each group in relation to rituals, wanting love, having love, exhibiting fear, and/or attending a party. While the measurement for men returned no statistical significance at the 0.05 level, the significance found for women at the 0.05 level included rituals (p < 0.001), wanting love (p < 0.001), and exhibiting fear (p = 0.041). Alternatively, the results for women and men together showed significance at all five levels.

A cross-tabulation analysis was also run to measure significance in relation to a child being clean, well-behaved, or rowdy; exhibiting fear; or attending a party. Each group returned significance at the 0.05 level for being clean (p < 0.001) and well-behaved (p < 0.001) while the boys and girls and boys groups each returned additional significance for being rowdy (p < 0.001) and exhibiting fear (p < 0.001). None of the three groups returned significance for attending a party.

The prevalence of the Jack O′ Lantern and subsequently the pumpkin in Halloween tradition can be directly attributed to the Irish. However, the emphasis on divination rituals to find love and marriage and the rearing of clean and well-behaved children are an indisputable white, middle-class female activity. The representation of women within the promotional culture during the turn of the century warrants consideration given their role as their households' primary purchasers. The results found in this study point to several important themes which not only demonstrate the rising importance of women during the early twentieth century but also to their ability to construct and disseminate the sociocultural norms necessary to support both their and the middle-class's rising influence.

The commonplace nature of postcards often serves as a reference of a time long gone and relationships long passed. Placed in their given context, postcards have the ability to enrich history by illuminating the societies of their time and the people who lived in them. Halloween postcards from the golden age of postcards are an exceptional example of historical ephemera from the early twentieth century.

Coinciding with the rise of the middle class and mass consumption in the United States, turn of the century Halloween postcards became a way for white, middle-class women to establish and perpetuate their sociocultural values while strengthening their role in both society and the home as conspicuous consumers. The postcards in this study exemplified common, often unspoken, fears that were at the forefront of the minds of the newly minted middle-class woman. These fears included failing to find love and marriage and keeping children at a high level of society.

As cultural artifacts, golden age postcards are emblematic of the values that were introduced and perpetuated through the turn of the century promotional culture. More specifically, the postcard became a way for white, middle-class women to disseminate the idealized version of themselves and their children. The popularity of sending postcards also aided in establishing the postcard's status as a cultural artifact in our communication history.

The rise of the middle class, the mass adoption of the postcard, and the realization of Halloween as a holiday clearly indicate that golden age Halloween postcards were not only used to disseminate norms as they related to white, middle-class women but also for women to represent their hopes and fears. As Jib Fowles writes, “One finds symbolized the personal assumptions, the operating beliefs, the aspirations, and the plaintive wants of those who populate what is currently the most dominant culture on earth” (1996).