Rural Minnesota Courtship: “Hidden Name” Calling Cards
Anna Peterson: 1895-1913
Pearl Peterson: 1901-1962
Among my family’s photos and memorabilia are some charming
little vintage calling cards. They bear messages that remind me of the sweet
sentiments found on early Valentine’s Day cards, and may have served the same
purpose as Valentines do now—to express a bit of romantic interest in the
opposite sex.
As I researched these little cards, I found them often
referred to as “Victorian Calling Cards”. You can find them for sale on vintage
and antique store websites, with the sellers claiming they were printed in the
1880s or 1890s. I believe these were printed about ten to twenty years later.
I have four of these cards. A site called Peculiar History
describes them well:
“While there are many examples of Victorian calling cards, some of the most elaborate include ‘scrap’ cards or ‘hidden name’ cards. The backing of each card carries the name of the person and is sometimes elaborately die-cut along the edges. Over the name, a small chromolithograph picture is pasted on one edge which then can be lifted to discover the caller. The chromolithograph image themes include hearts, doves, scrolls, urns, cupids, roses and women’s hands, among many others. There are also examples of short poems included in many of these pictures.”
My favorite of the four cards shows a woman’s hand against a
backdrop of roses and pansies, reaching out to touch a beribboned white dove
holding a card in its beak that reads, “May true friends be around you.”
Beneath the scrap picture is the name “Anna Peterson” printed in script. My
research found that the motifs of a woman’s hand combined with flowers
symbolized friendship. The different motifs used had special meanings.
The second card’s chromolithograph features a woman’s hand
holding a fancy card that depicts a snowy scene of a house and trees, and the
words “All happiness to you!” The card and hand are surrounded with roses and
forget-me-nots. The hidden name in this card is “Pearl Peterson”.
The next card has a smaller and thinner chromolithograph,
but the die-cut card beneath is elaborately embossed with floral garlands. The
picture features a hand reaching toward roses, with two white doves in the
foreground, while the background shows a snow covered scene of a river, a bare
tree and snow-roofed houses. The hidden name, in very elaborate script, is
“Martin Rinde”.
The last card features an elaborate die-cut pattern on the backing
card—it is a tear-drop shape with punched out circles making a border along the
edge. The chromolithograph features a white dove holding a sprig of pine or
yew, sitting amidst roses, yellow daisies, and small pink flowers. A woman’s
hand holds a blue scroll of paper that reads “A token of regard for thee, In
this my simple offering, see!” The hidden name is “Oscar O. Syverson.”
Anna Peterson and Pearl Peterson are two of my father’s
sisters. They were born in Lake Hanska Township in Brown County Minnesota to
parents Paul Peterson and Regina Syverson Peterson. Anna was born in 1895, and
Pearl was born in 1901.
The other cards were likely from young men who called on the
sisters and their family. I found Oscar O. Syverson on Ancestry. He was a year
older that Anna, born in Linden Township in 1894, so he wouldn’t have purchased
calling cards until his teens—1910 at the earliest. Sadly, apparently no young
lady ever returned his “regard”, for he never married.
As for the second young man, Martin Rinde, I can find no
record of him on Ancestry.
I suspect that like most trends, calling cards began as
something the upper class used, and then over time the practice trickled down
to the lower classes. Pearl and Anna Peterson were far from upper class. They
lived in a tiny farm house on the prairie without running water. These cards
would have been a luxurious little treat for a poor farming family. Since three
of the cards feature winter items—a pine spray in the beak of a dove, and
winter scenes in the backgrounds of two—I wonder if by the 1910s the cards
weren’t being used as traditional year-around calling cards, but as Valentine’s
Day greetings.
Whatever their purpose, the charming little “hidden name”
cards were being used in rural Minnesota long after the Victorian era was over.
The printing of the hidden names was probably handled by the local newspaper
office, which doubled as a printing service in the tiny town closest to the
Peterson farm. Now over a century old, the cards are lovely little reminders of
the joys of courtship in a past era.
Sources:
https://peculiarhistory.com/post/169692389750/victorian-calling-cards
https://hobancards.com/calling-cards-and-visiting-cards-brief-history
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