Many, many decades ago — long before email, text messages, Facebook, Twitter, Match.com, eHarmony, Craigslist, Zoosk, Tinder, Snapchat, Whatsapp, Mate-O-Rama, Yo, MeetMe, ooVoo, Burn Note, Whisper and Yik Yak1 — single gentlemen would use small calling cards to make their presence and intentions known.
This is one such card, which was once put into use by "Ray Barr."2 It measures just 3¾ inches by 1⅝ inches.
I'm guessing that Victorian-era women had little wooden boxes, full of cards from potential beaus, sitting on their Victorian-era vanities. They would collect them like baseball cards. "I only need one more and then I have everyone from Hickory Lane!"
If you're interested in more about this bygone method of wooing, courtship and social manners, here are some links to check out:
- AVictorian.com: Social Rituals
- The Manliness: May I See You Home? 19th Century Calling Cards Guaranteed to Score You a Date
- The Manliness: The Gentleman’s Guide to the Calling Card
- National Geographic: Saucy ‘Escort Cards’ Were a Way to Flirt in the Victorian Era
- Heroes, Heroines & History: Victorian Calling Cards
Footnotes
1. Only one of those is made up.
2. If you are a Papergreat reader actually named Ray Barr and would like to attempt to use this card, let me know. But you also have to report back and let us know how it goes.
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