The oldest Valentine in the the Postal Museum collection dates from about 1790. Called the Puzzle Purse Valentine, it is a single large sheet of paper folded to a smaller size. The puzzle is to unfold it in the right way to read the verses handwritten on the folds, and see the small illustrations. One of the verses on the card reads: My dear the heart which you behold/ Will break when you the same unfold/ Even so my heart with lovesick pain/ Sure wounded is and breaks in twain.
1800s The rival to the Penny Black (March 1840)
1900s First uniform for women (1915)
1900s Shakespeare 1/3d - First commoner on a stamp (1964)
1600s Colonel Whitley letter admonishes one of Postmaster Watts’ employees (12 November 1672)
1700s John Pratt writes to John Palmer to inform him that he hasn’t been appointed to Government (August 1782), (from the private papers of John Palmer)
1900s British Empire Medal winner Miss Ethel Kate Bellamy (31 December 1966)