We have all sorts of things in the college archives, including a few calling cards of students who attended the college in the 1880s, like those pictured here. The calling card was a widespread item among the middle and upper classes in that era. These were not business cards, but social cards. They allowed people to make themselves known to others, who then could choose to either visit and leave their own card, initiating a visit or relationship, or they could return the card, indicating that they did not wish to make the acquaintance of the person leaving the card. It might seem rather quaint, but perhaps we do something similar on FaceBook, when we send a "friend invitation" to someone else!
Monday, January 14, 2013
Circa 1880 Calling Cards
We have all sorts of things in the college archives, including a few calling cards of students who attended the college in the 1880s, like those pictured here. The calling card was a widespread item among the middle and upper classes in that era. These were not business cards, but social cards. They allowed people to make themselves known to others, who then could choose to either visit and leave their own card, initiating a visit or relationship, or they could return the card, indicating that they did not wish to make the acquaintance of the person leaving the card. It might seem rather quaint, but perhaps we do something similar on FaceBook, when we send a "friend invitation" to someone else!
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Thank you so much for sharing this information about calling cards. I just found your blog and I read it I got some information. So thanks for sharing!
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