Easter Bookmarks
by
Laine Farley
 Quite by accident, I have accumulated eighteen bookmarks with Easter themes. Many have arrived as part of a lot of mixed bookmarks or as a companion to another bookmark I preferred, and some were among items left inside books. I have intentionally purchased a few because they were published by well-known greeting card makers or lithographers or because they were especially pleasing. The cross shape is common for obvious reasons, but the other typical design elements are spring flowers, appropriate to the season and strong symbols of rebirth and renewal. Bookmarks have been associated with religious texts almost from their inception, and I hope to explore this relationship in a future column. The seasonal opportunity to highlight Easter bookmarks led me to discover a glimpse into their history.  In a March, 1899 article in Ladies Home Journal, Ruth Ashmore noted that “It has been a little while ago since it was thought that a pretty card or a tiny bunch of flowers was the proper offering to one’s friend on Easter Day. The idea of sending a trifling gift has grown, and how, instead of the posy or growing plant in full flower and tied with bright ribbons, there goes some dainty trifle with the best wishes of the giver for a happy Eastertide.”
Seasonal bookmark crafts projects for children commonly feature Easter designs. In an article titled “Easter Bookmarks,” Industrial Arts and Vocational Education, 3 Mar 1923, author Elizabeth Roberts provides instructions and designs for six bookmarks made from cardboard or ribbon. Most of the designs were meant to be painted with water colors, five have die-cut shapes, one uses a cut out picture from a postcard, and one has a cut out design where the attached ribbon shows through. Four of the six designs feature flowers of the season including daffodils, buttercups and irises. The Ashmore article also describes a handmade design using a violet moiré ribbon cut in different lengths, attached to a brass ring and painted with lilies-of-the-valley. I have a handmade bookmark of a cardboard cross attached to a cream grosgrain ribbon. The cross has handpainted white daisies and a “Happy Easter” greeting.  An article on “Easter Lily Entertainment,” p. 94 in The Book of Frolics for All Occasions by Mary Dawson and Emma Paddock Telford published by Rickey in 1911 describes in great detail a themed party. The authors suggest making bookmarks decorated with lilies as inexpensive awards for winners of games that are part of the event, but provide no instructions or illustrations. Presumably, those consulting a “book of frolics” can be expected to have creative talents of their own.  Sometimes children or the ladies guild would make bookmarks for Easter and present them to the church as in this brief account from the parish magazine from St.. Andrews church in Headington, England: Church Offerings. — The following offerings have lately been made to our Parish Church :—A pair of Altar Candlesticks, carved out of the wood of the old Communion Table; a pair of Branch Candlesticks for the Chancel; and some Book-markers, worked by the Girls of the School, and presented as an Easter offering. We may mention also a white embroidered covering for the Lectern in New Headington Chapel, the gift of a lady living in Oxford. Another article on “Church Needlework” in the Young Lady’s Book by Mrs. Henry S. Mckarness, published in 1888, provides advice on “ecclesiastical embroidery” for alter-cloths, alms bags, vestments, and book-markers. She advocates using only the very best materials such as silk and fine linen, and reminds that colors are emblematic for different seasons with violet for Lent and gold and blue for Easter. Green as the emblem of eternal spring is appropriate for all seasons.  Companies that provide church hangings, altar bags and the like also produced embroidered bookmarks for churches although I have never seen any that fit this description. However, MacCalla & Co. in Philadelphia advertised Easter Bookmarks in four designs of crosses embossed with flowers and “delicate colorings” on a celluloid finished card with silk cord tassels, similar to the one above.  Popular greeting card companies have also produced Easter bookmarks. Raphael Tuck & Sons, established in London in 1866, began marketing greeting cards and other printed matter in the 1890s. The lovely embossed bookmark above was printed in Saxony, Germany and probably dates from this period. An entry in the Catalog of Copyright Entries, Library of Congress Copyright Office, 1919, p. 134, lists an entry for Rust Craft with the greeting “I send this Easter book mark.” Gibson is another greeting card maker that began in 1895 and produced Easter bookmarks of which I have several.  Not to be outdone is the venerable Thomas Stevens whose silk woven bookmarks are highly sought after. An issue titled Easter Hymn was advertised in 1863. Its design and coloring set it apart from the examples above. Perhaps its dramatic depiction and more somber colors of red and black reflect the mood of a country in the midst of civil war. Others in my collection that reflect their times include one of unknown origin with “Easter 1944” and lilies on a rather garish pink background. Its reverse includes Bible verses for different situations such as “If you have good news” or “If you need peace” and poignantly “When you wonder if the war will ever end.” There is a more recent purple ribbon bookmark with gold illustration and lettering from a church in Richmond, VA. Oddly, it proclaims that “Historic evidence that Jesus Christ arose is even more abundant than historic evidence that Caesar ruled in Rome” and it gives the owner evidence that “I attended church on Easter Sunday.”  Bookmark specifications: Easter Greetings
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