Alan Mays' photos with the keyword: questions

"M________. May I have the pleasure of your company to attend a ________ to be held at ________ on ____ day of ________ 188__ at ____ o'clock __M. If so, please sign your name on the back of this card and return to me. ________." An escort or acquaintance card from the 1880s. For a discussion of these types of cards, see the article " When 'Flirtation Cards' Were All The Rage ," by Linton Weeks, on NPR's Web site.

Rebus: "Eye AM Uriah E. Heckert. W-Hoe T-He Devil R Yew?" Translation: "I am Uriah E. Heckert. Who the devil are you?" Acquaintance cards--like this rebus version--continue to attract some media attention. The latest is a Daily Mail posting by Annabel Fenwick Elliott on April 24. See her discussion of these "cheeky cards": " May I Have the Pleasure of Seeing You Home?' The 'Flirtation Cards' 19th-Century Men Used to Woo Ladies (But They Had to Be Returned If She Wasn't Interested) ."

"May I see you home?"

"W. L. Alexander. May I see you home? Or will I have to set on the fence and watch you meander by?"

Cover of Francis D. Nichol, Wet or Dry? A Brief, Candid Examination of a Moot Question in American Life (Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1932), which was published prior to the repeal of Prohibiton in the United States in 1933.

The chart on the right-hand side provides details for a "Bible Plan of Salvation."

A small calling card-sized, Victorian-era valentine, circa 1870s-1880s.

Or to put it more straightforwardly, this acquaintance card asks, "May I see you home?" The Encyclopedia of Ephemera (New York: Routledge, 2000), p 4, provides additional information: "A novelty variant of the American calling card of the 1870s and 1880s, the acquaintance card was used by the less formal male in approaches to the less formal female. Given also as an 'escort card' or 'invitation card,' the device commonly carried a brief message and a simple illustration.... Flirtatious and fun, the acquaintance card brought levity to what otherwise might have seemed a more formal proposal. A common means of introduction, it was never taken too seriously."