From gritty card games on the frontier to dainty ladies’ bridge parties, cards used to be what everyone did to have fun and pass the time. Sunday nights sometimes we’d have a family card game with the kids and everybody. Another of life’s simple pleasures that seems to be fading away, these old photographs remind us of just how important cards used to be to person’s social life.

1910s card game, NYC. Via/ Library of Congress
Family card game, 1893. Via/ Flickr
Naval hospital nurses get in a quick game of rummy, 1945. Via/ Flickr
Bar card game, 1942. Via/ Library of Congress
Bar card game, 1915. Via/ Flickr
“Beer parlor” card game, 1937. Via/ Library of Congress
Family card game, 1942. Via/ Library of Congress
Sailors playing cards, 1907. Via/ Flickr
Bar card game, 1942. Via/ Library of Congress
Two servicemen passing the time with cards, 1943. Via/ Library of Congress

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