Holiday Cards

Do you send out cards to friends and loved ones at the holidays? You might be interested to know that:

President and Mrs. Ford would send out greetings each year while living in the White House. In 1976, they sent nearly 35,000 cards(!) to friends, family, Heads of State, dignitaries, and more.

_{Sheila Weidenfeld Files, Box 36, “Christmas, 1976 – Card.”
NAID: 1489735
Courtesy Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library and Museum}

In 1975, President Ford sweetly deferred to his wife on the selection of the holiday stamp to use, writing “My choices. Please make final decision.”

_{Presidential Handwriting File Documents Annotated by the President, Box 24, “Holidays – Christmas Cards.”
NAID: 6923710
Courtesy Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library and Museum}

And while this illustration was ultimately not selected for the Ford’s 1976 holiday card¹, we still find it a beautiful addition to the Ford artifact collection.

_{Painting of 3202 Woolworth Avenue, the Omaha, Nebraska home of Charles Henry King, father of Leslie Lynch King (the biological father of Gerald R. Ford) by artist Gerald J. Burns.
1991.148.1
Courtesy Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library and Museum}

It may (or may not) be too late to send holiday cards this year, but now we’re getting an urge to check in with our family and friends. Thank you for being a part of our community!

Authors: Brooke Clement and Dr. Richard Weld

https://catalog.archives.gov/id/187065 ↩︎

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