Alan Mays' photos with the keyword: acquaintance cards

An acquaintance card dating to the late nineteenth or early twentieth century. If you look closely, you'll see that the printer mistakenly used a "u" instead of an "n" to spell "and." I had to read through the text a couple of times before I even noticed the error. Confidential Miss: If you desire to form my acquaintance, please state time and place on blank space.

The last line on this amusing acquaintance card refers to a song, "Any Old Place I Can Hang My Hat Is Home Sweet Home to Me," which was published as sheet music in 1901 and recorded on phonograph cylinder in 1902, making it likely that the card dates from sometime in the early 1900s. For more cards, see my album of Acquaintance Cards . For information about my book of detachable acquaintance cards, head over to my Flickr About page L. M. Arnold, Sand Patch, Pa., R.F.D. No. 1 Let's get acquainted. Capital 50 millions in my dreams. Not married. Stick to me and you will wear diamonds, Kind regards to friends and knockers. Out for a good time. Any old place I hang my hat is my home sweet home.

A unique acquaintance card. Albert W. Colter Way down in my heart I've got a feeling for you. May I see you home this evening. I don't smoke, chew, drink, tell lies, go with other girls, or break dates. I part my hair in the middle, crease my pants on the side, and shine my shoes in the front.

"Dear Miss, I will risk everything depicted here if you will permit me to see you as far as the gate. Yours very truly."

A unique combination of a business card on one side and an acquaintance card on the other. For another two-sided example, see Acquaintance Compliments with Confidence and Respect , which has a name—like a calling card—on one side and the text of an acquaintance card on the other. For more cards, see my album of Acquaintance Cards . For information regarding my book of detachable acquaintance cards, which was published recently by Clarkson Potter, see my Flickr profile page . O. M. Dolley Livery Both 'phones. Horses and carriages furnished for business or pleasure at reasonable rates. 21 Water Street, Auburn, N.Y. Typographical Union Label, Auburn. Let's Get Acquainted Capital, 10 millions in my dreams. Not married, 1906. Kind regards to friends and knockers. Out for a good time.

"Dear Miss, I very much desire the pleasure of your acquaintance and your company home this evening. If agreeable please keep this card, if not kindly return it. Yours truly, ________." See also Fair Lady, I Send You This Beautiful Chromo with My Compliments (below) and my Acquaintance Cards album for additional examples.

"Fair Lady, I send you this beautiful chromo with my compliments. If I may be the happy youth on the promenade, please retain it. If I must suffer misery on the fence, be so good as to return it. Yours truly, ________." See also Dear Miss, I Very Much Desire the Pleasure of Your Acquaintance (below) and my Acquaintance Cards album for additional examples.

A-La-Mode Fair One: 'Tis balmy eve, and gentle zephyrs blow With mildness seldom seen of late. If you'll permit me, I would like to go And see you safely to the garden gate. Illustration: Yum Yum. Scene at the gate. This is an example of a Victorian-era acquaintance card , which was also referred to in the nineteenth century as a flirtation, escort, or invitation card. The Encyclopedia of Ephemera (New York: Routledge, 2000), p 4, provides this definition: "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." Here's CNN's take on acquaintance or escort cards: "So, may I see you home? In the late 19th century, Americans exchanged cheeky personalized cards to start a romance. Call them the ink-and-paper Tinder. Escort cards helped people find intimacy while breaking the strict conventions of social interaction." That's the description of a video that appeared on CNN's Great Big Story today (February 12, 2016). The short piece (1:25) uses reproductions of my collection of acquaintance cards (see my complete set on Flickr or the ones I've posted on Ipernity so far ) to present The 19th Century Tinder: Welcome to the Racy World of Escort Cards over on YouTube (don't miss my acknowledgement at the end of the video ). For those who may not be familiar with the sometimes naughty Tinder , Wikipedia calls it a "location-based dating and social discovery application (using Facebook) that facilitates communication between mutually interested users, allowing matched users to chat." So, were acquaintance or escort cards--like the one above--the nineteenth-century equivalent of Tinder, as the video suggests? I don't really think that formally dressed Victorian men and women secretly gave each other cards in order to hook up like we see in the video. Although some of the cards may sound like cheesy pickup lines to modern ears, I think it's more likely that school kids and young adults used them to break the ice, get a laugh, or start a conversation rather than to arrange a tryst. In reality, acquaintance cards provided a lighthearted and humorous way to parody the more formal exchange of calling cards that took place in Victorian times. Acquaintance cards were sold by the same companies that supplied calling cards, rewards of merit, and advertising trade cards, and they show up alongside these other printed items in the scrapbooks that were popular with women and children in the nineteenth century. Back to the Yum Yum A La Mode card. Here's how it was advertised in the Argus and Patriot newspaper, Montpelier, Vermont, on September 18, 1878, p. 4. The following text appeared along with the "Yum Yum" illustration: Boss. Red Hot. If you want to smile all over your face for six months, just send for the Red Hot Flirtation Cards, 50 for 25 cts. Samples sent for 2 3-ct. stamps. Remember these cards are Red Hot Regular Tearers!! They cannot be beat. We stump everything of the kind. You will laugh till you cry if you send for them. P.O. stamps are better than silver to send in a letter, and are all the same to us. Write your orders plain. Address Marshall & Co., 35 Sudbury St., Boston, Mass. So what do you think? Was this a "Red Hot Flirtation Card" that Victorians used as a paper-based Tinder? For some other articles that have featured my acquaintance cards, take a look at these: Linton Weeks. When "Flirtation Cards" Were All The Rage . NPR, July 31, 2015. Becky Little. Saucy "Escort Cards" Were a Way to Flirt in the Victorian Era . National Geographic, January 4, 2016. Brett and Kate McKay. May I See You Home? 19th Century Calling Cards Guaranteed to Score You a Date . The Art of Manliness, February 13, 2014. Messy Nessy. The 19th Century Escort Cards with Pick-Up Lines You Definitely Haven’t Heard Before . Messy Nessy Chic, April 21, 2015. Esther Inglis-Arkell. Young People Used These Absurd Little Cards to Get Laid in the 19th Century . Gizmodo, January 6, 2016.

"I am (Comic Imp Card). Who the devil are you?" A card pasted in a Victorian-era "Agent's Sample Book" that was issued by an unidentified calling card company. I also have a blank copy of this card without the "Comic Imp Card" description or a name. See I Am ________, Who the Devil Are You? (below). For an example of another card that was in the "Agent's Sample Book," see the Fireman's Card (below).

"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) ."

"I am Sam Kahn. Who the devil are you?" I have found cards like these two--the one for Sam Kahn above and the other for Anna "Butch" Engle below--among collections of graduation name cards that date as late as the1940s. I don't have any definitive proof, but I suspect that high school or college students were able to order amusing cards like these from Jostens or some similar company at the same time they ordered their formal graduation announcements and name cards. These "who the devil are you" cards are, of course, just updated versions of earlier nineteenth-century Devil Cards and Comic Imp Cards (see examples below).

"I am Anna 'Butch' Engle. Who the devil are you?" For a similar card, see I Am Sam Kahn, Who the Devil Are You? (below).

"I am ________. Who the devil are you?" For another copy of this card, see Comic Imp Card: I Am ________, Who the Devil Are You? (below).

"Hot Air Post Card. Address, any old place. Holding hands a specialty. Wholesale and retail dealer in love, kisses, and up-to-date hugs. I have no agents, I attend to this work personally. Give me a trial. Sole proprietor of lover's row. Special attention to other people's friends. Address: any old place. Holding hands a specialty." Printed on the back of the postcard: "Copyright 1907, by E. W. Wilson, post card publisher, 278 B Tremont St., Boston, Mass."

"May I see you home?"

"Might I dare, I fain would ask, / That you would give word or sign, / How I my true love might declare, / And learn my fate at Cupid's shrine."

"Caution. Dear Miss: The accompanying Chromo is a good illustration 'done in ile' of the gent who escorted you home last Sunday evening, as he appeared at three in the morning while ascending to his room. The Society for the 'Invention of Cruelty to Animals' wishes me to caution you against keeping him up so late again!"