A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE SAILOR’S VALENTINE GALLERY
AND THE SAILOR?S VALENTINE

For more than twenty years, The Sailor’s Valentine Gallery on the island of Nantucket
has been the primary resource for both collectors and students of Sailor’s Valentines.
And there could hardly be a better location for our re-introduction, in 1981 of this nearly
lost art form so directly connected to the maritime history of Nantucket.

Our gallery is housed in the historic Thomas Macy Warehouse, a former whale oil
processing facility active during Nantucket’s heyday as the whaling capital of the world.
This wonderful 3600 square foot building is owned and has been carefully restored by the
Nantucket Historical Association.

Over the years, our gallery has represented the majority of the most esteemed makers of
contemporary Sailor’s Valentines. We are proud to have been enormously influential in re-
establishing a newfound interest in this traditional maritime craft.

Interestingly, American sailors’ earliest valentines were influenced by European ladies’ parlor
arts of the 19th century. The fascinating exotica that merchant traders “brought ‘round” the
Cape of Good Hope during the early 1800’s spawned a multitude of collections in the salons of
the growing European middle classes. Tiny seashells from around the world were especially coveted,
and soon were being displayed in geometrically composed compartments of glass covered boxes, or
fashioned by the ladies into elegant floral decoupage which decorated sewing boxes or were enclosed
by domed glass and hung on the wall.

Americans of that day were dependent upon word from Europe for the latest styles and custom. American whalers, often on voyages which lasted several years, crossed paths with European merchant ships at ports
of call like Barbados, where they would be the first to hear of current European vogue. The American
temperament of the time tending toward independence and “one ups-man-ship”, it is easy to imagine
that first sailor taking a collection of shells to an empty compass case to fashion his own style of shell
art. Of course, it was not until quite later that the phrase sailor’s valentine was assigned to the curious
shell-filled boxes sailors brought home as gifts for the loved ones left behind.