In the nineteenth and up until the early decades of the twentieth century (before the age of the phone books), Americans remodeled the Victorian lifestyle that their European cousins were living, and used calling cards to personify and present their contact information to visitors and colleagues. Calling cards communication was considered a proper, dignified, and professional way to become familiar with another person– many of the middle-class (who had hoped to become more professional and ‘wealthy’ with this technique) created personalized papers, traded and collected other cards from peers and colleagues. My book subject, Sallie Brooke Capps, collected calling cards at the end of her life in the 1930s and 1940s. In the archives at the University of Texas at Arlington, I found a stack of her calling cards, each with the contact information (address and the phone number) of Fort Worth colleagues and other professionals she had met at national education conferences. Some of these acquaintances lived in Texas, while others resided in New England and in the Western states. A couple of her “new & found” friends were employed with companies in England and Scotland.
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| A professional (yet subtly romantic) calling card, c. 1890 |
Calling cards were often also used as an elaborate communication device in regards to when a ‘giver’ wished for the ‘recipient’ to pay them a visit, either at work or the house. Folding down different corners of the card let the receiver know that the giver would either be at their residence or away. Additionally, the middle-class created and mass-spread mourning cards, holiday/celebration cards, and dance cards (which proved to be very popular among the inner cities during the Jazz Age). Every kind of calling card was used as a social tool– a formal way of getting acquainted to strangers and sequentially keeping in touch.
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| Can I become acquainted with you?, c. 1890 |
Although calling cards were predominately used by those who were middle-aged and well situated in their careers, the youth also experimented with such cards. Their intentions were often different to those of their parents or the older generation. Flirtation cards were used by some to get a partner to fall head-over-heels in love with the ‘giver’. Often, cards would present a poem or a cheeky, yet Shakespearean quote to grab the attention of a woman. Some cards were steamier in sexual nature, although a lot of cheesiness and laughable matter were mixed in. Other cards would not be as respectable, choosing to insult a woman and showcasing a male’s true sexual intention in a relationship. It is often funny (and weird) to find and research about different ways human populations have contacted each other (and how to find potential mates) in history. In the modern age, where technology (FaceBook, Twitter, Instagram, mobile apps such as Tinder and Grinder, among others) is heavily relied upon by so many of my friends and work colleagues to find love or quick sexual satisfaction, it is concerning to think about the evolution of the relationship process with this current generation (the so-called ‘Millennials’), who are steadily solidifying the idea that meaningful conversations are no longer a part (or do not necessarily need to be an initial part) of a new-found relationship, sexual or non-sexual. And I laugh when I find interesting parts of history, like the flirtatious calling cards described above, and realize that young humans are still the non-verbal creatures like their ancient predecessors who have barely matured since the nineteenth century.
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| A well thought-out calling card that uses Shakespearean language, c. 1920 |
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| Other calling cards got a lot steamier..., c. 1910 |
Information & calling cards are found in the Rice University Libraries, Houston, TX.
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