First New Year’s Reception in the President’s House

The first New Year’s reception was held in the White House on January 1, 1801 and the customary etiquette was observed in spite of the shivering conditions. It was the fashion in the early days of the Republic for the company to be seated and the President and his lady to pass around the circle with words of courtesy and welcome.

President and Mrs. John Adams decided to hold their New Year’s reception notwithstanding that the White House was not fully furnished, and it was given in the oval-shaped library on the second floor, a handsome room commanding a fine view of the Potomac, the outlying Virginian and Maryland hills.

“That first reception,” we are informed, “was a very formal affair. The President and his wife did the honors alone that New Year’s Day, and it does not seem to have occurred to them to call on the Cabinet families to assist them. The President’s wife sat in state in her brocades and velvets, while the President stood beside her in knee-breeches, gaily colored waistcoat, high stock collar, and his powdered hair tied in a neat queue. After each guest had paid his respects to them, he passed on and was served with refreshments by a colored waiter.”

Someone writing of a New Year’s reception at the White House in the early years of the last century, speaks of “flashing jewels, silken dresses and nodding plumes” and adds quaintly:

My attention was attracted to what seemed like a rolling ball of burnished gold carried swiftly through the air upon two gilt wings, toward the President’s house. It stopped before the door, and from it alighted, weighted with gold lace, the French Minister and his suite. We now perceived that what we had supposed to be wings were gorgeous foment, with brass chapeaux and gilt braided skirts, and armed with glittering swords.



Inside History of the White House by Gilson Willets,  New York  The Christian Herald  Louis Klopsch, Proprietor  Bible House  copyright 1908