Visiting card

By the 1760s, the upper classes in France and Italy were leaving printed visiting cards decorated with images on one side and a blank space for hand-writing a note on the other.

[1] By the 19th century, men and women needed personalized calling or visiting cards to maintain their social status or to move up in society.

Calling cards were left at homes, sent to individuals, or exchanged in person for various social purposes.

Photographic cartes de visite or "CdVs" were not generally used as calling cards: they did not have the owner/sitter's name printed on them, since they were normally given to family and close friends, or were of celebrities.

The visiting card is no longer the universal feature of upper-middle-class and upper-class life that it once was in Europe and North America.

Much more common is the business card, in which contact details, including address and telephone number, are essential.

Men may use their forenames or initials, while a married or widowed woman may either use her husband's name (the traditional usage) or her own.

The only post-nominal letters used are those indicating membership of the armed forces (e.g. "Captain J. Smith, RN").