Old Visiting Cards

I have a question about the cards in the passage below. Does the writer say that people visiting someone else wrote their name on the card that had on the other side a picture of another person (who was historical or popular)?

I want to know whether my interpretation is right, for I wonder what meaning it had to have another person’s picture on the card (even if that person was historical or popular). I don’t think the picture was necessary.

• It was also in the 19th century that other kinds of cards had another use. Card makers were producing special cards that showed pictures of historical or popular people of that time. These cards were not used in regular card games. Instead, people used them as calling cards when they visited other homes, writing their names on the back. These cards had the role of introducing visitors.