Etiquette of Presidential Wives

Benjamin Harrison was President of the United States from 1889 to 1893. His wife, Caroline Harrison, wanted new White House china that would be “symbolic and meaningful to Americans.” The First Lady, knowledgeable of the expected social graces of the day, was an artist herself. She placed the Coat of Arms of the United States in the center of the plates, and designed a goldenrod and corn motif, etched in gold around a wide band of blue. The corn represents Mrs. Harrison's home state of Indiana. Forty-four stars, one for each state at the time, make up the inner border. Mrs. Harrison directed a large-scale remodeling effort of the White House, adding a china closet to display all past Presidential china services. Her artistry made hand painting china a popular pastime for other gilded age ladies of the day.A pastime that remained popular well into the 1920’s. Caroline Harrison was not able to use the china she had ordered for the White House, however, as she died before it was delivered. The china arrived in December 1892.

The entertainments for which the wife of the President can işsue invitations are all prescribed by law. It is quite out of her power to regulate matters in this respect. Not so in the case of the Secretary's wife. True, she has to conform to the laws of official etiquette in regard to formal Wednesday receptions, several evening affairs, and the issuance of dinner invitations to certain dignitaries who may from time to time loom up on the horizon. But beyond that, she is free if she so wills it, to wine, dine, laugh, dance, and be merry with whomsoever she wills, in so far as official etiquette is concerned. 

She may resolve herself into a social whirligig if she be so minded and there is no one-barring her liege lord and master, of course– to say her nay. She may shine a star in the social firmament, with all the power that position gives, or she may at will sink into the undesirable oblivion accorded during the last Administration to the family of the Attorney General. The wife of the President can, if she so wills, get on now and then a dinner or luncheon at which the guests may be of her own personal selection, but she is sadly limited in such opportunities as compared with the wives of Cabinet officers.

The Secretary of State seems inclined to enter into the social gayeties with zest, if one may judge by the number of receptions, dinners, and informal little affairs during the afternoon at which he has already appeared. He is a good neighbor to have at the dinner table when a genial mood possesses him, and one whose conversation is not likely soon to be forgotten. Apparently he is more desirous that his family should enter more largely into the Winter's gayeties than has been the custom upon the former occasions of residence in Washington, for his avowed object in the purchase of his present residence on Lafayette-square was for its accessibility. In speaking of his house on Dupont Circle, Secre tary Blaine stated that he did not desire to live here again, as it was found when they resided there, immediately after its completion, to be too far away from the centre of the city; that he wished now to live where the friends of the family could drop in upon them informally at all hours.

Another household hardly likely to be on a very intimate footing at the White House is that of the Vice President, as beyond all question that will be the headquarters for the gay world. Upon Mrs. Morton's shoulders will fall the mantle of the Whitneys, and the magnificent entertainments given during the past four years by the Secretary of the Navy and his wife will be rivaled by those to be given during the next four years by the Vice President and his wife. It seems to be pretty generally understood that, while on perfectly friendly terms, the first and second ladies of the land will not indulge in any great degree of intimacy.–December, 1889

Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J. Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia