1930's Calling Card Etiquette

Leaving one's calling card was the best way to ensure a return call. Calling cards were the forerunners to today's business cards.

Every person, when old enough to take part in the social life of the community, needs a visiting card. Such cards are engraved, not printed, and bear the name of the man or woman with the title Mr. Mrs. or Miss. 

Pet names are never used, and usually the full name appears on the card, although a man who has a name which he dislikes or prefers not to use, may elect to have an initial on his card. His wife would use the same form.

It is customary to have one's address on a visiting card, but for the people who live in small towns or the country, it would not be necessary and perhaps not even possible. People living in cities sometimes omit the address also, perhaps because they do not regard their address as permanent.


Husbands and wives have, in addition to their individual cards, a joint one for use in visiting and sending presents. This card is somewhat larger than the wife's card, which may be larger than that of her unmarried daughter or maybe the same size. There are several standard sizes for a woman's card to suit personal preference and the length of the name. A man's card is much smaller than a woman's. Any good stationer has samples showing correct sizes and styles of engraving.


A widow continues to use her husband's Christian name on her cards, and letters to her should be addressed in the same way — that is, "Mrs. John Taylor"; not "Mrs. Barbara Taylor." Socially, a woman never uses "Mrs." before her Christian name, although she may in business. 

A divorced woman customarily uses her maiden surname with her married name, as "Mrs. Smith Robinson." "Senior" should not be used after a name, either on a card or envelope for men. — Etiquette for To-Day, 1939

Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia

Calling Card Etiquette Trends 1903

The hostess who sits down in the hush following the 7 o’clock diminishing clatter of good-byes at the end of her tea, can read a good deal of social law as she runs over the contents of the silver tray that has been heaping since 4 o'clock in the butler’s hand. There is the married woman’s card. It is always a trifle over three inches long and a trifle over two inches wide. Some are larger. Mrs. Hobart uses a card three and a half by almost two and a half. Mrs. Henry Crocker does also.

THE bit of pasteboard is a trifle, perhaps, but it is one of the most significant trifles in this complex world, where the knot of a tie or the size of a pompadour may testify to the wearer’s social status. The calling card may seem even less than either of these, but it tells far more. Wouldn’t our ancestors back in the days of primeval man have thought us a strange race, if they could have known that we were to be judged by a two-by-three-inch scrap of pasteboard, on which only a name— perhaps an address—sometimes a day, is engraved? And yet, after all, how simple a diploma that two-by-three card is, certifying to our knowledge of the forms correct.

The hostess who sits down in the hush following the 7 o’clock diminishing clatter of good-byes at the end of her tea, can read a good deal of social law as she runs over the contents of the silver tray that has been heaping since 4 o'clock in the butler’s hand. There is the married woman’s card. It is always a trifle over three inches long and a trifle over two inches wide. Some are larger. Mrs. Hobart uses a card three and a half by almost two and a half. Mrs. Henry Crocker does also. 

Mrs. Hugh Tevis has a card that is only three by two, no larger than an unmarried woman’s. It is fashionable to engrave the married name in full, as “Mrs. Josephine Sadoc Tobin” and “Mrs. Henry Edwards Huntington.” This, however, depends somewhat on a husband’s choice, and if he has always been in the habit of writing his name with initials he usually prefers that his wife should follow suit. Both initials are sometimes written, as “Mrs. S. G. Murphy,” or the middle initial, as “Mrs William H. Crocker.” Mrs Crocker, by the way, has no period after the abbreviation “Mrs.” This is modern and smart.

The head of a family often uses only the surname, as “Mrs. Hobart.” but this is not advisable unless the name is uncommon. When the address is engraved on the card it appears in the lower right-hand corner; the day at home in the left. A card may have either, both or neither. Mrs. Henry T. Scott has a card giving her Burlingame address in the right, her San Francisco address in the left corner. If one lives on a street corner it is smarter to write out that statement as, “Laguna and Washington streets, northwest corner” instead of the simple house number. If the card is. to be used while you are away from home it is good form to engrave merely “San Francisco” for the address. A card used in making farewell calls has “P. P. C.” in the left corner. This is an abbreviation of the French form– “Pour prendre congé ” or “To take leave.” 

A widow’s card shows her own Christian name instead of her husband’s. Thus, “Mrs. Jane Stanford” would be according to custom, although Mrs. Stanford is in the habit of signing herself “Mrs. Leland Stanford.” The width of the mourning border is a matter of personal taste. Sometimes it is almost a third of an inch wide; sometimes hardly more than a black line. – San Francisco Call, 1903

Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia