Cards for Dad

FATHER’S DAY SEEMS TO INSPIRE A FAIRLY LIMITED RANGE OF IMAGES AMONG THE GREETING CARD MAKERS.

1970s

Here are some father’s day cards from the 1970s – cars, horses, desk – missing the golf clubs.

These are from Sands (John Sands Pty Ltd)  and Gibson (Regency Greetings). Gibsons was a North American greeting card company from Cincinnati. Companies were licensed to sell Gibson cards here. There is a biography of John Sands available from the Australian Dictionary of Biography. There is a history of Gibson Greeting Cards available to read online.

Now

Here is a modern take on fatherhood – we have cards showing three types of fathers – the nerd, the rocker and an unfit superman type.

We are missing the handmade card – maybe we will have some to show after the weekend.

The origins of father’s day

Here is an account about the origins which means that the original motivations were very fine. (This quote comes from the Sydney Anglicans’ website.)

There are two common accounts of the commencement of Father’s Day in the USA. The first comes from a mine disaster that killed 361 men.  A Methodist Episcopal Church in Fairmont, West Virginia, held a special service on July 5th 1908 to celebrate fathers, seeing that so many had died in the tragedy.

The other foundation of Father’s Day in America is more personal. It was the story of Mrs Sonora Smart Dodd of Spokane, Washington.  When she was 16 her mother died in childbirth leaving six children. Her father, a civil war veteran, raised the children as a single parent.  Sonora’s deep appreciation of the father lay behind her desire to honour fathers.  It was while she was in church on Mother’s Day 1909 that she thought of celebrating fathers with a special day.

With the help of the ministers fraternal and the YMCA she organised the first citywide Father’s Day. Her plans were to hold it on her own father’s birthday (June 5), but could not organise it in time.  So it was held on the third Sunday in June 1910.

It seems that from these two events the modern idea and celebration spread across the nation and from America across the world.