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Alan Mays

This card from Anna “Butch” Engle suggests that men weren’t the only people who made the first move with acquaintance cards.

Charles M. Krout takes parodying calling cards to a whole new level with lines like “Come and examine my stock before dealing elsewhere.”

“I am a millionaire’s only son!” Flaunt if you got it, Harry.

No one could accuse Elmer Miller of being too modest. This “Ragtime Millionaire” acquaintance card was one of the more brazen, braggy types.

This card humourously exaggerated what the giver would go through to walk a lady home.

A common motif on escort cards was that that if a man couldn’t walk a lady home, he’d just have to sit on a fence and watch her go by.

Not all aquaintance cards were gentlemanly. It’s hard for a modern reader to even know what some of the phrases on this card refer to—except, of course, for “3 Smacks and a Squeeze,” which transcends the decades.

This card seems to express romantic interest while also making an odd joke about spousal abuse.

Many cards included a request to return it if the advance was unwelcome.

In the late 19th century, some young people used “escort” cards to humourously initiate courtship.