3-008-379 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

New Year's Reception at the White House, Washington - from a sketch by our special artist, 1862. 'New Year's Day is celebrated with great enthusiasm by the Americans generally. The custom which requires the ladies of a family to keep open house for all gentlemen who choose to call grew up in New York, which city is said to have imported it from Amsterdam, the mother city...from private circles it soon spread, in a modified form, into public life. In the United States the theory that men in official position are the servants of the people is rigidly acted upon. Hence it became the fashion for the Mayor of a city to receive his "friends" on this day - the said friends including every male inhabitant of the city. In like manner the Governor of the State was held to the obligation to "receive" at the State capital...The President's reception is divided into two parts - first, a special reception of the diplomatic corps in the forenoon, and at noon a general reception of the public of both sexes, who enjoy the honour of a shake of the hands with, or a bow from, the chief "public functionary" of the Union, and the highest embodiment of the sovereignty of the people'. From "Illustrated London News", 1862.