Some business card history researchers believe that they were launched in ancient Egypt. More cautious refer to the sources, from which it is known that the Chinese counterparts came up in the 2nd century BC. The card was necessarily red, and besides the name, it indicated the position and the social status of the owner

Official sources and authoritative Encyclopedic Dictionary Brockhaus and Efron report: “For the first time, a calling card appears in France at the time of Louis XIV. At first, business cards served playing cards, which personally wrote the name and visitor’s name. Actually, the name of the card comes from the French word “visit”, or Latin “visitare”.
Soon the cards became printed. From 1750 they contain generic coats of arms, decorated with garlands and various ornaments. A distinctive feature of business cards of that time is the attraction for special luxury and status determination.
They gradually captured the cities of Europe: Venice, Berlin, Prague, Vienna and others. Zhytomyr was no exception.
A business card becomes a necessary and obligatory attribute of secular and official life. There is a fashion to the cards, and people who collect them. The first known collector was Johann Goethe, a German poet, a prose writer.
In the eighteenth century, business cards were executed by professional artists, the name was stained with flowers and allegorical images that hinted at the title, the social status of the identified person or place of residence.
Over time, the decoration of business cards has become mythological: they depicted the ancient ruins, abandoned temples, antique heroes, etc.
Then the time came for knightly paintings. These were original works of art.
The engraving for business cards was ordered by the best artists and was a real masterpiece of graphics. Informative nobody cared. Business card of that time performed primarily a representative function, emphasized prosperity, pedigree, status of the owner in society.
Zhytomyr is the center of Volyn province, which, in size and quantity of the population, did not yield to some European countries, it lost its capital cities. The custom to use business cards originated here in the first half of the XIX century, and in the end became a routine business. The trend towards simplicity and modesty of the card is coming to an end. The Zhytomyr newspaper “Volyn” dated April 30, 1899 states: “… in 1820, business cards were included in the general use. At first, these were mostly ugly quadrangular pieces of cardboard, but over time the paper was improved and the cards were no longer allowed. Decoration of business cards consisted only of the name and surname of the owner, printed in sophisticated font “.
The business card becomes part of the official and business life, it has everyone who thinks it is necessary, and the middle class inclusive. The use of a business card is a ritual that becomes part of the etiquette. When dating is presented by a card whose rank, position or social status is lower. If the status of the interlocutors is equal, the first one offers a card younger than the age. A businesswoman handles a woman. In no case could the card be crushed, folded in half, or recorded on it in the presence of the owner.
An important part of the quality of the card was considered ease and readability, a good font. The design was created by specialists artists and specialists in typography. There are special envelopes for business cards. The women were more sophisticated, they had a slightly smaller size.
Well-designed business cards used to organize weddings, Christmas or Easter ceremonies.
Active promotional business cards with indication of the name of the company or store, owner’s name, address, phone are actively distributed.
Often this was done with a commercial offer.
The reverse side was an account that was completed after the sale of the goods, glue the stamp stamp for payment of the tax, put a seal and handed over to the buyer.
Before the First World War, representative business cards became particularly widespread not so much in the noble aristocratic environment, as among people who did not want to give in.
The popularity of business cards to some extent contributed to the development of photography in its portrait direction. Many business cards were decorated with photo portraits, which had to show good taste.
Since then until the middle of the twentieth century it was accepted and fashionable to give your own photo portrait to relatives or friends with the inscription: “For memory”!
After 1917, when the Bolsheviks began to power, business cards almost disappeared. In the then new “Soviet” society, they were surprisingly associated with bourgeois life and bourgeois remnants, which in the 1920-1940’s created a threat and became dangerous for the owner.
The presence of a business card was enough to cause suspicion among PCIA employees, to become a “socially alien element” and even to be physically destroyed.
Today, the long tradition of business cards continues, they change, acquire new forms, colors, design and modernize. The fixed telephone number is replaced by an email address. If at the time of Louis pointed to the title, significance and position of the owner, today on some business cards indicate only the name and the link to the site. This is enough for the interested person to get complete information. The history of business cards continues.
A successful business card is one of the steps to success in life!
Serhii Sobchuk, Member of the National Union of Local History of Ukraine
Anna Sobchuk, co-author
Used materials from their own archive of authors,
State Archive of Zhytomyr Region (Volyn newspaper No. 4 of April 30, 1899), open sources
Translated by Aliona Matushevich