If you visited the National Archives Building in late 1974, you could purchase a specially designed holiday card with this design:
The card showed Santa Claus and one of his reindeers looking at the Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and Bill of Rights on display in the National Archives Exhibition Hall. The design reflects what the Rotunda looked like before its early 2000s renovation, when Declaration of Independence was still on vertical display.
The designer, Sandy Sharpe, was from the National Archives Educational Program design team. Visitors to the National Archives Building could purchase the holiday card for 15 cents each or as a pack of 25 for $3.50 at the sales desk. On the actual card, Santa is colored red. We know this because the cards were still being sold through the 1980s, and staff still remember them.
The sales desk opened when the agency first began producing publications in the late 1940s. Up to that point, it normally sold facsimile packets such as “The Charters of Freedom,” “Emancipation Proclamation,” and other National Archives’ publications. This was the agency’s first foray into the holiday greeting card market. All proceeds went to the National Archives Trust Fund.
The Sales Desk is long gone, but today visitors can purchase National Archives memorabilia—including holiday greeting cards—at the National Archives Foundation–run gift shop in Washington, DC.
Happy Holidays from the National Archives!
Read some more of our holiday-related posts: