
Emily Post
etiquette expert
Emily Post was not always synonymous with social decorum and no-nonsense manners. Until middle age, she was a moneyed daughter, a socialite inhabitant of Henry James's Washington Square, a wealthy wife and mother of two.
It was her rocky marriage to financier Edwin Post...and its spectacular public breakup ~ with more than a whiff of blackmail and infidelity ~ that led the long-time writer to produce a book that cemented her as America's heroine of good taste. Etiquette, originally published in the early 1920's and now in its 18th edition, is still found on bookshelves in homes and businesses.
timeless + timely advice | simplifying society's rules
1905 | involved in a scandalous divorce
1922 | a small print run of the manners handbook "Etiquette" was published...she was 50 years old at the time
1946 | founded the Emily Post Institute, which continues to evolve etiquette guideposts for a changing world
from | to
moderately successful novelist + journalist | etiquette icon
born on
October 27, 1872
born in
Baltimore, Maryland
birth name
Emily Price
citizen of
The United States of America
daughter of
Josephine (Lee) Price
Bruce Price
~ architect ~
Emily was an only child.
grew up in | lived in
Tuxedo Park, New York | Edgartown {Martha's Vineyard}, Massachusetts
educated at
home schooled by governesses
finishing school
divorced from
Edwin Main Post
~ married 1892 - 1905 ~
mother of
2 sons | Edwin + Bruce
great-grandchildren | great-great grandchildren
A number of family members remain at the helm of the The Emily Post Institute, continuously evolving the etiquette empire.
in her spare time
played the banjo
influenced by
good manners | Emily Holt {Encyclopaedia of Etiquette, 1901}
died on
September 25, 1960
tweets
@EmilyPostInst
image credits
Emil Fuchs | Brooklyn Museum | public domain
Library of Congress | public domain
collapse bio bits"I really quite honestly hope that everything will not be so easy as to be entirely colorless."
By Motor to the Golden Gate | 1916
"Etiquette must, if it is to be of more than trifling use, include ethics as well as manners."
Etiquette In Society, In Business, In Politics And At Home | july 1922
"Try to do and say those things only which will be agreeable to others."
Etiquette in Society, in Business, in Politics and at Home | july 1922
"Etiquette, remember, is merely a collection of forms by which all personal contacts in life are made smooth."
Etiquette | july 1922
"Life, whether social or business, is a bank in which you deposit certain funds of character, intellect and heart; or other funds of egotism, hard-heartedness and unconcern...You can draw nothing out but what you have put in."
Etiquette | july 1922
"Ideal conversation must be an exchange of thought, and not, as many of those who worry most about their shortcomings believe, an eloquent exhibition of wit or oratory."
Etiquette in Society, in Business, in Politics, and at Home | july 1922
"If you know any one who is gay, beguiling and amusing, you will, if you are wise, do everything you can to make him prefer your house and your table to any other; for where he is, the successful party is also."
Etiquette in Society, in Business, in Politics and at Home | july 1922
"Only the very small mind hesitates to say 'I don't know.'"
Etiquette in Society, in Business, in Politics and at Home | july 1922
"If you find yourself sitting in the hedgerow with nothing but weeds, there is no reason for shutting your eyes and seeing nothing, instead of finding what beauty you may in the weeds."
Etiquette | july 1922
"Life is too short to waste it in drawing blanks...It is up to you to find as many pictures to put on your blank pages as possible."
Etiquette | july 1922
"Training a child is exactly like training a puppy; a little heedless inattention and it is out of hand immediately."
Etiquette | july 1922
curated with care by Meghan Miller Brawley {august 2014}
book | By Motor to the Golden Gate | 1916
Emily Post's notes on California from her 1916 travel book, By Motor to the Golden Gate. She traveled with her son Ned, who drove, and her cousin Alice Beadleston, and serialized the journey for Collier's magazine. The book, an expanded account of the 27-day trip, was her first nonfiction book.
Emily Post
photo | afternoon tea table | Etiquette | 1922
In 1922, at the age of 50, Emily Post published the book which would define her for the rest of her life, and beyond, as an arbiter of taste and manners. The chapter on afternoon tea is not so different from today's domestic blogs, with its precise and idealized picture of home life ~ although today's blogs feature fewer footmen! "There is not the slightest difference in its service whether in the tiny bandbox house of the newest bride, or in the drawing-room of Mrs. Worldly of Great Estates, except that in the little house the tray is brought in by a woman—often a picture in appearance and appointment—instead of a butler with one or two footmen in his wake."
Emily Post, Etiquette in Society, in Business, in Politics, and at Home | Funk & Wagnalls | 1922
her garden | Edgartown, Massachusetts
Emily Post's "haven of delectable tranquility" was her cottage on Martha's Vineyard, where she spent summers. She purchased the home in 1927, and spent much of her time in the garden (about which she wrote "dahlias make me sick!") and decorating ~ and wearing shoes as red as these dahlias. She got her zeal for architecture and interior design from her father, a prominent architect.
Art Poskanzer
CC BY
radio broadcast
The success of Etiquette led to a radio show that ran through much of the 1930s, and a syndicated newspaper column. In 1946, Emily founded the Emily Post Institute to further the study of manners. The Institute is run by her descendants today, and encompasses an etiquette empire of everything from books to seminars to an encyclopedia.
Emily Post Institute
film | Table Manners | Emily Post | Christy Assoc., Inc. | 1947
Emily Post narrates a demonstration of correct table manners, including the proper use of finger bowls and the polite way to smoke at the dinner table, in this 1947 instructional filmstrip. Despite the few outdated pieces, the overall advice is still timely. Post makes an appearance in her Edgartown, Massachusetts garden at the beginning, saying, "Most people are at ease in their own homes, but often are confused at a dinner party."
Christy Associates, Inc. | Emily Post Institute | Prelinger Archives