And a Happy New year!

Why choose just one? Here’s a selection of my favorite New Year’s cards from New York Public Library’s digital collections: a little corny, a lot sincere. Most of them probably date ca. 1900. All NYPL’s New Year’s cards are here (foreign ones here).

baby-nypl-digitalcollections-510d47e3-47e1-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99-001-w

birds-umbrella-nypl-digitalcollections-510d47e3-47d7-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99-001-w
Birds. Umbrella. How does that work? And I would have put “may” at the beginning of the sentence.

may-your-path-nypl-digitalcollections-510d47e3-4cca-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99-001-w

newsboy-nypl-digitalcollections-510d47e3-4783-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99-001-w

atlas-1909-nypl-digitalcollections-510d47e3-4d02-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99-001-w
Dude. Shrug.

sailor-nypl-digitalcollections-510d47e3-47a7-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99-001-w

simple-wish-nypl-digitalcollections-510d47e3-47a3-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99-001-w

time-deal-gently-nypl-digitalcollections-510d47e3-47db-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99-001-w

german-pig-nypl-digitalcollections-510d47e3-5292-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99-001-w
The German phrase for “got lucky” is “Schwein gehabt” (“got pig!”) According to the Goethe Institut, “The beast in question is associated with good luck in German and is now often gifted in the form of a marzipan pig. Swine don’t have a whole to do with Christianity, except when it comes to absorbing cast-out demons. The reason they’re tied in with good fortune is quite simple: to possess plenty of pigs was a sign of wealth and prosperity in the Middle Ages. Their owners would never go hungry. “

italian-nypl-digitalcollections-510d47e4-4c61-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99-001-w

woman-pig-mushrooms-nypl-digitalcollections-510d47e3-59a4-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99-001-w

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