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February 18, 2016 Archive Insight

leap year

Leap year--when an extra day is added to the calendar as February 29--offered a special "opportunity" for women. In folk tradition, it was only then that women could propose marriage. Nowadays, marriage proposals are fair game for either gender. In the early 1900s, postcards like this one were an inexpensive and novel way to send colorful greetings to family and friends.

Dated 1908, this leap year postcard was sent in April of that year and created by the Paul C. Koeber company.

leap-year-back

Jeanine Head Miller is Curator of Domestic Life at The Henry Ford.

 

home life, postcards, correspondence, by Jeanine Head Miller, women's history, holidays

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