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In September of 1906 Fred Winslow Rust opened a small bookshop in an office building located in Kansas City. Being a collector of Louis Prang prints, Rust had a desire to print his own cards. In October he published a simple Christmas card on heavy tan paper with only a text greeting. The first letter of the first word was larger than the rest and printed in red. This would be the style used for his following cards. This was the first "enveloped" style card in the industry, a folder, made in the style of what came to be known as the French fold.

This card was sold only in Rust's bookshop and was very successful, selling over 5,000 copies by Christmas. The following year Rust's brother, Donald, partnered with him and helped develope a small line of greetings cards with envelopes, postcards, calendars and blotters. By January of 1908 they also had a line of Valentine and Easter cards. These lines were being promoted on both coasts of the U.S. By 1910 the production had grown so much that they had to close down the retail portion of the company and focus on creation, sales and production. In 1913 they moved shop to Boston and thus "Rust Craft Publishers" was born.

Most of the early Rust Craft cards were written by Fred Rust. He set high standards on the sentiments published and edited every one submitted until his death in 1949. Some other early contributors were Ella Randall Pearce, Helen Lovejoy McCarthy, and Emily Selinger. Design was also held to high quality. Many of the early designs of children were by artist such as Marion Justice, Betty Manley, Ruth Norton, and Gunila Stierngranat. The ever popular stage coach designs were the works of Naomi Clement.

Rust Craft was a leader in many areas of greeting card production, including design, use of unusual surfaces, color and sentiments. Rust Craft led the way to greeting cards for other holidays, events and patriotic cards. They were the first to use Braille embossed cards for the blind and introduced "Family" and "Special Titles" cards. These included cards titled "To My Wife", "To My Husband", "To A Fine Son", etc.

View examples of early Rust Craft cards By Clicking Here

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