Balls (Parties)

A typical invitation received by Eleanor Butler Roosevelt during her debutante year.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1907-12

An article details the luxurious ball hosted by Mr. and Mrs. Bradley Martin at the Waldof.  

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1897

Charles Beatty Alexander, Eleanor Butler Roosevelt’s uncle, in costume for the Bradley Martin ball.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1897-02-10

Harriet Crocker Alexander, the wife of Charles Beatty Alexander and aunt of Eleanor Butler Roosevelt, appears in costume for the Bradley Martin ball. Alexander’s dress was made and sent over by Callot Soeurs, Paris.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1897-02-10

Alice Green taken with a beau, Spencer F. Eddy, at fancy dress ball. Green was Eleanor Butler Roosevelt’s aunt.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

Unknown

A large crowd of men and women, all wearing formal evening clothes, and the women draped with stunningly sparkling jewels, are at a ball given by “Mrs. Gaster.” Caption: Central office at Mrs. Gaster’s Ball.

comments and context

Comments and Context

Puck magazine and others, especially as the Muckraking Era dawned, criticized the excesses of the wealthy society denizens of the Conspicuous Consumption class. In fact the Gilded Age — the term having been applied by the eponymous, scathing novel by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner in 1873 — was dying. Its gaudy death throes were exemplified in ostentatious events like the ball depicted by cartoonist Albert Levering. The “400,” the exclusionary term coined by the social arbiter of the wealthy in the 1880s in his Social Register, was more commonly seen by the public as the Idle Rich, and worse, instead of model citizens.

A formal invitation sent to Quentin Roosevelt inviting him to attend the Inaugural Ball on March 4, 1905. Envelope included.

Collection

Sagamore Hill National Historic Site

Creation Date

1905-03-04

President William McKinley and Columbia, arm-in-arm, head for the inaugural ball.

comments and context

Comments and Context

Before the date of a president’s new term was changed to January 20, in 1934, by Constitutional amendment, Inauguration Day was March 4.

Theodore Roosevelt thanks Gordon Knox Bell for the letter. Roosevelt enjoyed his brief visit to the ball.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-02-17

President Roosevelt will tell Herman Henry Kohlsaat about Judge Peter Stenger Grosscup’s actions when they see each other. On a more pleasant note, Roosevelt finds Kohlsaat’s daughter, Katherine Kohlsaat, to be sweet and cunning, and is happy she enjoyed herself at his daughter Ethel’s dance.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1909-01-09

President Roosevelt tells his son, Theodore Roosevelt, about recent goings-on at the White House over the holidays. Many of the Roosevelt children have been attending a number of parties, which has affected their daily schedule. He describes a late-night party at the White House given by Kermit Roosevelt and Ethel Roosevelt that disturbed his and Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt’s sleep, in which he had to personally intervene to make them go to bed. Roosevelt has been riding, and had the opportunity to test some rifles with Kermit that they will be bringing on their upcoming safari. He has recently been asked by Johann Heinrich von Bernstorff, the German ambassador, to give a lecture in Berlin when he is in Europe, but it is the last one that he plans to schedule.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1909-01-03

President Roosevelt promises to get John Ellis Roosevelt’s daughter, Gladys Roosevelt, the invitation to Ethel Roosevelt’s ball at once. Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt is “up in arms with everybody,” and says that she knows she sent an invitation to both Gladys and Jean Roosevelt.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-12-19

George B. Cortelyou informs Louisa M. Davis that the Roosevelts will not be able to attend the Charity Ball. Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt thanks her for her thoughtful invitation.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1902-01-09

George B. Cortelyou invites Helena McCarthy, society editor for the Washington, D.C. Evening Star, to stop by the White House briefly to get some details about an upcoming dance to be held there.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1902-01-03

George B. Cortelyou submitted Wallace D. McLean’s request to Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt, and reports that the list of those to be invited to an upcoming dance at the White House is now complete.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1902-01-02

On behalf of Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt, George B. Cortelyou invites Lewis C. Ledyard to attend an upcoming small dance at the White House.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1902-01-02

The Roosevelts will not be able to attend the Charity Ball due to scheduling conflicts resulting from an early Lent.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1901-12-13

J. A. McKean sends Theodore Roosevelt 10 tickets to the Annual Ball of his lodge. This is their only fundraiser and is necessary after a run of sickness, injuries, and death among the members that year. McKean hopes Roosevelt will be generous with his reply.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-10

The members of the Bronx Regular Republican Club invite Theodore Roosevelt to attend their annual ball on February 1, 1911.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-01-20

John Ellis Roosevelt confirms that the invitations for Gladys Roosevelt and Jean Schermerhorn Roosevelt have arrived. Roosevelt’s wife, Nannie Vance Roosevelt, will be escorting about twenty young people to Washington to attend Ethel Roosevelt’s ball. Roosevelt wishes President Roosevelt and his family a merry Christmas.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-12-24