What is the traditional wedding anniversary gift list?

The traditional wedding anniversary gift list was codified in the 1937 Anniversary Books Bureau publication and adopted by Emily Post in her etiquette guides. It assigns a symbolic material to each anniversary year, starting with paper at year 1 and progressing through cotton, leather, fruit and flowers, wood, iron, wool and copper, pottery and bronze, willow, tin, steel, silk and linen, lace, ivory, crystal, china, silver, pearl, ruby, sapphire, gold, emerald, and diamond at year 60.

What is the modern wedding anniversary gift list?

The modern alternate list was published in 1948 by Chicago jeweler Helen Marek. It updated the traditional list with more practical and contemporary categories, notably replacing some early-year materials with appliances, silverware, fashion jewellery, and pearls.

Which anniversaries are called jubilees?

The named jubilees are the 25th silver jubilee, 30th pearl jubilee, 40th ruby jubilee, 50th golden jubilee, 55th emerald jubilee, and 60th diamond jubilee. The term originated with Queen Victoria's 25-year throne anniversary in 1862 and migrated to wedding anniversaries during the late Victorian era.

Who publishes Anniversary Atlas?

Anniversary Atlas is edited by Lila Marchetti and published from South Africa for the global English-speaking audience. We document years 1 through 60 with traditional, modern, and gemstone alternates for each anniversary.

Wedding anniversaries · documented

Anniversary gifts by year.

Traditional, modern, and gemstone alternates for every wedding anniversary from year one to year sixty. Researched, sourced, and updated annually. Edited by Lila Marchetti.

Find your year ↓

· The atlas ·

What this is

Anniversary Atlas is the standing reference for wedding-anniversary gifts. We document the traditional list codified in 1937, the modern alternate list published by Chicago jeweler Helen Marek in 1948, and the gemstone designations standardised in 1957 by the American Gem Society. Sixty years documented, source-cited, refreshed annually.

We do not sell jewellery. We do earn commission on some links: see the affiliate disclosure on every page and the full methodology. For the cultural anthropology of how these lists were built, see the editorial standards.

Milestone anniversaries

The named jubilees and the most-cited milestone years:

Read the milestone deep-dives →

The full index

Every anniversary from year one to year sixty.

Each row is a fully documented spoke page. Click the year to read the entry. The first 30 entries have full editorial treatment; years 31 through 60 carry the canonical designations and will be expanded in subsequent refresh cycles.

Year	Tradition	Traditional gift	Modern alternate	Gemstone
1st	Paper ivory	Paper	Clocks	Gold jewelry, mother of pearl
2nd	Raw cotton	Cotton	China	Garnet
3rd	Aged leather	Leather	Crystal and glass	Cultured pearls
4th	Linen blush	Linen, silk, fruit, or flowers	Appliances	Blue topaz
5th	Walnut	Wood	Silverware	Pink sapphire
6th	Iron grey	Iron	Wood	Amethyst
7th	Copper	Wool or copper	Desk sets	Onyx
8th	Bronze	Pottery or bronze	Linen and lace	Tourmaline
9th	Sage willow	Pottery or willow	Leather	Lapis lazuli
10th	Tin silver	Tin or aluminium	Diamond jewellery	Diamond
11th	Steel slate	Steel	Fashion jewellery and accessories	Turquoise
12th	Raw silk	Silk or linen	Pearls and coloured gems	Jade
13th	Lace blush	Lace	Textiles and furs	Citrine
14th	Ivory cream	Ivory	Gold jewellery	Opal
15th	Crystal clear	Crystal	Watches	Ruby
16th	Silver mist	Silver hollowware	Silver hollowware	Peridot
17th	Warm walnut	Furniture	Furniture	Watches
18th	Porcelain white	Porcelain	Porcelain	Cat's eye chrysoberyl
19th	Warm bronze	Bronze	Bronze	Aquamarine
20th	Platinum	China	Platinum	Emerald
21st	Brass	Brass or nickel	Brass or nickel	Iolite
22nd	Copper warm	Copper	Copper	Spinel
23rd	Silver plate	Silver plate	Silver plate	Imperial topaz
24th	Tanzanite indigo	Musical instruments	Musical instruments	Tanzanite
25th	Silver jubilee	Silver	Silver	Sterling silver jubilee
26th	Star sapphire blue	Original pictures	Original pictures	Star sapphire
27th	Stone slate	Sculpture	Sculpture
28th	Orchid pink	Orchids	Orchids
29th	Furniture walnut	New furniture	New furniture
30th	Pearl jubilee	Pearl	Diamond	Pearl jubilee
31st	Watch case	Timepieces	Timepieces
32nd	Travel slate	Conveyances	Conveyances
33rd	Amethyst royal	Amethyst	Amethyst	Amethyst
34th	Opal iridescent	Opal	Opal	Opal
35th	Coral salmon	Coral or jade	Jade	Emerald
36th	Bone china	Bone china	Bone china
37th	Alabaster white	Alabaster	Alabaster
38th	Beryl green	Beryl or tourmaline	Beryl or tourmaline
39th	Lace blush	Lace	Lace
40th	Ruby jubilee	Ruby	Ruby	Ruby jubilee
41st	Earth umber	Land	Land
42nd	Land beige	Improved real estate	Improved real estate
43rd	Travel blue	Travel	Travel
44th	Pantry sage	Groceries	Groceries
45th	Sapphire jubilee	Sapphire	Sapphire	Sapphire jubilee
46th	Paper poem	Original poetry tribute	Original poetry tribute
47th	Library leather	Books	Books
48th	Lens slate	Optical goods	Optical goods
49th	Pre-gold	Luxuries	Luxuries
50th	Golden jubilee	Gold	Gold	Golden jubilee
51st	Post-gold
52nd	Post-gold honey
53rd	Post-gold honey
54th	Post-gold honey
55th	Emerald jubilee	Emerald	Emerald	Alexandrite
56th	Post-emerald
57th	Post-emerald
58th	Post-emerald
59th	Post-emerald
60th	Diamond jubilee	Diamond	Diamond	Diamond jubilee

· · ·

The published canon

Three published lists anchor every entry on this site:

1937 traditional list. The Anniversary Books Bureau publication, adopted by Emily Post. Source of all traditional designations.
1948 modern alternate list. Helen Marek, a Chicago jeweler, published a modern alternate list that updated the canon with practical and contemporary categories.
1957 gemstone list. The American Gem Society standardised gemstone designations for each anniversary year.

Anniversary Atlas reads from these three sources and cites them on every spoke page. For the full bibliography see sources.