Happy New Year, from the New Years 1890 series (N227) issued by Kinney Bros. 1889 - 1890

This New Year’s card, printed around 1890 by Kinney Bros. Tobacco Company, depicts children enjoying winter’s snowy landscape, a scene punctuated by the passing of time, marked by the years 1889 and 1890. The act of marking time is an ancient ritual. Think of the Roman god Janus, after whom January is named, often depicted with two faces looking to the past and future, much like our card that symbolizes transition and reflection. The sled, carrying a child towards 1890, is a vehicle of hope, a motif echoed in countless other artworks and celebrations worldwide. The fallen child marks the end of the year passed, a melancholic farewell. It’s a universal dance between joy and sorrow, hope and remembrance. Consider how these simple symbols, a sled, a fall, a new year, speak to our shared, cyclical experience of time and emotion, resurfacing in our collective psyche. They offer us a poignant reminder of the transient nature of time itself.