Is this your ancestor? Appeal launched to identify Victorians via ‘social media’ of their day

The Royal Horticultural Society is displaying 19th-century calling cards of past members

Victorian calling cards have been displayed for the first time to allow the public to find their ancestors’ 19th-century “social media” profiles.
The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) has unearthed hundreds of cartes de visite, small photograph portraits which would be traded and collected among friends or wider networks of acquaintances.
The cards, which acted as an early form of “social media”, are now being shared online, revealing the “profiles” of Victorian members of the society. The public are being invited to look for their ancestors among the collection of eminent horticulturalists.
The RHS is also hoping that the public may be able to help identify the figures on 16 cards whose names are unknown.
Fiona Davison, head of libraries at the RHS, said: “Calling cards were the original social media. Rather than collecting friends on Facebook or followers on Instagram the Victorians displayed the photos left by their visitors as evidence of their popularity and social standing.
“To have had none on show in your hallway would have sent a rather ominous message to anyone who came to call.”
She added: “We’re delighted to now be able to share our collection of calling cards digitally so people can help make new discoveries about the history of gardening and maybe even the history of ancestors in their own family.”
The calling cards carry photographs of often-bearded Victorian men who had membership of the RHS, including nurserymen, florists, entomologists, professional gardeners and botanists.
They were used to indicate a person’s interest in making a social call and would be left at the houses of those they wished to visit in advance.
This practice became popular among the upper classes, and became a craze in the mid-19th century when new technology developed in France allowed photograph portraits to be exchanged instead of decorative cards.
Charles Darwin took great pleasure in the trend and had a collection of photographs of his friends.
His portrait is among the RHS collection, along with those of Joseph Paxton, who designed the Crystal Palace, and the then-King and Queen of Belgium.