Snapshots of the Past

Cease! This is Christmas Day and no occasion for unseemly levity! The Webster alliance submits suitable greetings"" – Historic Print

Cease! This is Christmas Day and no occasion for unseemly levity! The Webster alliance submits suitable greetings"" — historic print
Cease! This is Christmas Day and no occasion for unseemly levity! The Webster alliance submits suitable greetings"". Historic print from the Christmas collection.

(Originally scanned by the Library of Congress. Each image is professionally and digitally cleaned of artifacts such as color bars and extra borders prior to printing.)

Description

This historic print of Cease! This is Christmas Day and no occasion for unseemly levity! The Webster alliance submits suitable greetings"" brings a moment of history to your wall. The original is held by the Library of Congress, so what you hang is a true record of its time.

The framed print arrives ready to hang; the unframed option suits custom framing. It makes a striking addition to a living room, study or office, and a thoughtful gift. Free shipping in the lower 48 states. Snapshots of the Past, founded in 2001, has served tens of thousands of customers worldwide.

Cease! This is Christmas Day and no occasion for unseemly levity! The Webster alliance submits suitable greetings""

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Its title sets the joke: a card scolding the reader for "unseemly levity" on Christmas Day, then offering greetings from "the Webster alliance" anyway. A small card in the upper right, marked as condemned by a supposed National Board of Christmas Card Censors, extends the gag into the design itself. The piece is a photomechanical reproduction with watercolor on blue wove paper, and it belongs to the Swann collection of caricature and cartoon at the Library of Congress. Its humor reflects a time when greeting cards were a large, mass-produced business, and comic cards often poked fun at the form's sentimentality.

Medium1 photomechanical print : photoreproduction with watercolor on blue heavy wove paper ; 15 x 10 cm. (sheet)
Notes[between 1916 and 1952]
SubjectsAt the upper right a small card reads, Condemned by the National Board of Christmas Card Censors -- Per [illegible signature]." No copyright information found with item. Bequest and gift; Caroline and Erwin Swann; 1974; (DLC/PP-1974:232.671) Forms part of: Caroline and Erwin Swann collection of caricature and cartoon (Library of Congress)."
SourceLibrary of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
Original scan998 × 1,536 px · prints to 3 × 5 in at 300 dpi
ReferenceAMZ-SOTP-HPA-157352

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