Social Register - History

History

In the United States, one of the earliest social registers was the Cleveland Social Directory, later known as the Cleveland Blue Book. Its first publication appeared in 1880 and was described by its publisher as a "Ladies Visiting List and Shopping Guide" for Cleveland society. The original New York Social Register first was published in 1886 by Louis Keller, a German-American of wide social acquaintance, who combined the "visiting lists" of a number of fashionable ladies to compile the families included. Initially, it consisted largely of the descendants of Dutch or English settlers, the "Knickerbocker" merchant class who had built New York City from the time it was a Dutch colony through the British colonial period and the American Revolution.

In the enormously expanded wealthy society of the Gilded Age, the American institution of a Social Register filled a newly perceived void, one that was being served in the United Kingdom by Who's Who, which, since 1849, had identified public figures in Parliament and the professions as well as aristocrats and gentry, and by Burke's Peerage, which had appeared for the first time in 1826 to identify the members of the peerage of the United Kingdom and the baronets. Burke's Peerage was extended beyond the peerage in 1833, when the first of the companion series of volumes that became known as Burke's Landed Gentry, was published. Family backgrounds of those of purely celebrity status were not added to Burke's until the 1930s, when the family had lost editorial control.

By 1918, the above mentioned New York Social Register had spawned eighteen such annual volumes, representing twenty-six cities, such as Dayton, Ohio. This reduced to 12 after 1927 as most of the editions west of St Louis discontinued. There was no single all-encompassing Social Register; until the cities were condensed in one large volume in 1977; local indices were compiled and published annually. Smaller areas within the scope of the New York Social Register have entities that publish "blue books" or "Social Lists" such as for Morris County, which often includes members of the New York register in their listings due to multiple residences. The Morris Social Directory, published annually since the late 1800s, lists the notable residents of the county, especially of the Morristown area which attracted many social register families from Manhattan to build "country residences" (christened with names) on self-sustaining estates with farms that were maintained year-round, but visited as retreats or for specific "seasons" of social activities.

The Summer Social Register of 1952, listing all cities, covers New York, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, Chicago, Boston, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Baltimore, Buffalo, and Dayton.

One's entry in a Social Register was not guaranteed to be permanent. Persons were removed from the ranks for various scandals or pecadillos, or simply for pursuing "undesirable" careers such as the theatre. One example concerns an actress, Jane Wyatt, who is a descendant of the prominent Van Rensselaer family, was thought to be removed from inclusion because of her profession, but was still listed until her death in October 2006 at the age of 96. Charles Black was dropped from the Social Register in 1950 for marrying ex-child star Shirley Temple.