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{
    "localId": "354584253",
    "label": "\"The White House\" [Extract from \"Washington City and Capital\"]",
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    "id": "354584253",
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    "contentType": "document",
    "title": "\"The White House\" [Extract from \"Washington City and Capital\"]",
    "citationUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/354584253",
    "collections": [
        "President's Secretary's Files (Truman Administration)",
        "White House Files"
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    "productionDates": [
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            "logicalDate": "1937-01-01",
            "year": 1937
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    "seq": 17,
    "pageIndex": 0,
    "type": "photo",
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    "ocrText": "THE WHITE HOUSE STAFF\nas other social leaders. The First Lady appeared as a Rumanian\npeasant.\nDespite the earlier formalities, life in the White House was much\nThrough the years there has developed a system of White House\nsimpler a century ago. The First Lady was likely to keep a close\netiquette which has now taken a settled form, although details are\neye on domestic affairs, and more than once exchanged recipes with\nchanged from time to time in accordance with the wishes of the\nher predecessor or successor. William Henry Harrison, as late as\nPresident and the First Lady.\n1841, was given to going to market with a basket on his arm.\nThe President receives calls but returns none except to royal visi-\nWhereas Jefferson had about a dozen servants, in 1890 the staff was\ntors. Acceptance of invitations to formal dinners at the White House\nnearly twice as large. Under President Taft it totaled about 100\nis considered obligatory, unless absence from the city, or illness, pre-\npersons. Mrs. Taft eliminated the office of steward and abandoned\nvents. Dinner guests are always expected to arrive at the hour stated\nhaving caterers to serve large dinners. She appointed a housekeeper,\nin the invitation. The President is always attended at state gather-\nand all meals were thereafter prepared in the White House.\nings by his military and naval aides. The order of precedence is\nThe size of the White House staff gradually increased as the scope\nbased partly on official standing and partly on the ranking age of\nof entertainment grew. Today it includes the Chief Usher and his\nthe officers involved-rather than on personal titles, as in Europe.\nassistants, the housekeeper, ladies' maids, the President's valet, door-\nIt frequently changes with the succeeding administrations. The\nman, engineers and maintenance men, telegraph and telephone oper-\nPresident, naturally, always comes first; then the Vice President;\nators, butlers, cooks, chambermaids, secretaries, garden help, chauf-\nex-Presidents; foreign ambassadors; the Chief Justice of the Su-\nfeurs for the White House automobiles, police, Secret Service men,\npreme Court. The order beyond this point is left to the discretion\nand personal, military, and naval aides to the President; all these in\nof the State Department, which revises it from time to time.\naddition to the Executive Office staff. Extra waiters and kitchen\nDinner guests enter by the east entrance, where they are shown a\nhelp are hired for large dinners. Some 3,000 guests are entertained\nplan of the dinner seating arrangements. A junior aide then escorts\nat meals each year. The total number of visitors annually is about\nthem to the East Room and introduces them to their dinner partners.\n1,000,000.\nThe guests then take their places in line according to rank.\nAt state dinners today the table is set with china purchased by the\nWHITE HOUSE ETIQUETTE AND CUSTOMS\nFranklin D. Roosevelts. Ivory tinted, with a gold edging and an\nThe recent social annals of the White House reveal some innova-\ninner band of blue containing 48 gold stars, it bears both the Presi-\ntions. It was President Harding who introduced the custom of in-\ndential seal and a formal design in light gold tracing which includes\nviting guests to breakfast. Under Harding and under President\nthe rose and triple feathers of the Roosevelt coat of arms. The table\nCoolidge many Senators, Representatives, newspapermen, and for-\nis decorated with flowers. The Monroe gold service, or a silver set\neign visitors dined early in the morning on hot cakes and sausage\nwhich includes a decorative centerpiece consisting of a great silver\nand other dishes which showed no influence of imported chefs.\nboat on a plate-glass sea, often supplies service plates, although\nDuring the Hoover administration there was held the most elab-\nsome First Ladies have preferred service plates which match the\norate ceremony in recent White House annals to honor the visiting\ndinner set. The small silver is marked \"The President's House.\"\nKing of Siam in 1931, one of the few times when a reigning monarch\nThere is one butler to each four guests.\nhas been in the White House. The King visited the President and\nState dinners generally consist of six rather than eight courses as\nthe President immediately returned the call. The same night the\nformerly, and no longer include such elaborate dishes as caviar and\nPresident entertained the King at a great banquet in the White House.\nterrapin, popular in the White House some years ago. Dinner ended,\nMrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt established two social precedents at\nthe ladies usually retire to the Green or Red Room where they are\none stroke in 1934 when, on the occasion of the Gridiron Club dinner\nlater joined by the gentlemen, after coffee and cigars. A musicale\nat the New Willard Hotel, she gave the first costume ball in the\nmay follow in the East Room, in which case, by 30, the host and\nWhite House. It was a feminine gathering exclusively. To it were\nhostess rise to indicate the end of the evening's entertainment. Less\ninvited the wives of the Gridiron Club's guests that evening, as well\nformal dinners are sometimes followed by dancing.\n28\n29"
}