U.S. vs. British Seating Etiquette

For years it has been a debated question, the subject of endless discussion, as to whether on such occasions the President, as official head of the Nation, should not take precedence of the host and hostess. 
Public domain image of  Secretary of the Interior of the United States, 1889 - 1893, John Willock Noble

 A QUESTION OF ETIQUETTE.

MRS. NOBLE SEATS THE PRESIDENT AT THE HEAD OF HER TABLE

WASHINGTON, Feb. 11.– Secretary and Mrs. Noble gave a dinner to-night to the President and Mrs. Harrison, which witnessed a departure from the usual order of etiquette observed in seating the company at a table at which the President is the guest of honor. For years it has been a debated question, the subject of endless discussion, as to whether on such occasions the President, as official head of the Nation, should not take precedence of the host and hostess.

The usual order has been for the President to sit at the right of the hostess. In order to settle the matter, Mrs. Noble some time ago sent to London to get the English order of precedence, which supported her ideas on the subject, and decided that the President should occupy the seat of the host. The matter was then submitted to the State Department, which replied that the form was in this country purely optional. Mrs. Noble thereupon decided to have the seat for the President placed at the head of the table, while for herself was the one at the right. Secretary Noble sat at the opposite end of the table, with Mrs. Harrison at his right.

The guests were President and Mrs. Harrison, Vice President and Mrs. Morton, Secretary and Mrs. Elkins, Secretary Tracy, Mrs. Wilmerding, Secretary and Mrs. Rusk, Secretary and Mrs. Foster, the Postmaster General, Attorney General and Mrs. Miller, donator and Mrs. Sherman, and Mrs. Edith Foster of Chicago, niece of Mrs. Noble.– The New York Times, 1892

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