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Specific to the United States, the Social Register is a directory of names and addresses of prominent American families who are claimed from the social elite. Inclusion in the Social Register has historically been limited to members of polite society, members of the American upper class and The Establishment, and/or those of "old money" or White Anglo-Saxon Protestant families, within the Social Register cities. They are Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, New York, Philadelphia,〔The Philadelphia volume included Wilmington, Delaware.〕 Pittsburgh, Portland, Providence, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington, D.C., as well as ones for "Southern Cities".〔examples may be found in (Page 2 of the 1925 Social Register of St. Louis, Missouri )〕 In European countries, similar directories for the perceived upper-class, such as ''Burke's Peerage'' and ''Landed Gentry'' in the United Kingdom, have been published for hundreds of years. ==History== The social elite was a small closed group. The leadership was well known to the readers of society pages, but in larger cities it was impossible to remember everyone, or to keep track of the new debutantes, the marriages and the obituaries.〔Karal Ann Marling, ''Debutante: Rites and Regalia of American Debdom'' (2004)〕 The solution was the ''Social Register,'' which listed the names and addresses of the families who mingled in the same private clubs, attended the right teas and cotillions, worshipped together at prestige churches, funded the proper charities, lived in exclusive neighborhoods, and sent their daughters to finishing schools〔Paul M. Pressly, "Educating the Daughters of Savannah's Elite: The Pape School, the Girl Scouts, and the Progressive Movement." ''Georgia Historical Quarterly'' (1996) 80#2 pp: 246-275. (online )〕 and their sons away to prep schools.〔Peter W. Cookson, Jr. and Caroline Hodges Persell, ''Preparing For Power: America's Elite Boarding Schools'' (2008)〕 One of the earliest social registers in the United States 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 Encyclopedia of Cleveland History, "Cleveland Blue Book"〕 A volume called 'THE LIST", a Visiting and Shopping Directory, was published in New York City in 1880 by Maurice M. Minton, it included lists of prominent New York families, with their addresses. 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.〔According to the current publisher, Forbes, at ForbesInc.com.〕〔Social Register online〕 Initially, it consisted largely of the descendants of Dutch or English settlers, the "Knickerbocker" merchant class who had built New York City. 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.〔A reference to the social register for Morris County, New Jersey in historical records maintained by a group focused on a historic home that has now been turned into a country club, reads, "...After James's death his youngest son, George Wetmore Colles 2nd, inherited The Evergreens. George (1836-1911) was a lawyer; his wife, an author. They kept homes in both New York and Morristown. The 1902 Morris Social Directory lists Mrs. Julia Keese (Nelson) Colles and children Miss Gertrude, Miss Julia, and Mr. George Jr. as residing at 20 High Street.()〕 ''The Blue Book of the Hamptons'' was published annually in The Hamptons, which prior to the 1950s was the site of a Summer Colony of the social elite. 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. People 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. Wyatt was thought to have been removed from inclusion because of her profession, but was in fact still listed until her death in October 2006 at the age of 96. Jane Wyatt's article states she was restored to the register after her marriage. Charles Black was dropped from the ''Social Register'' in 1950 for marrying ex-child star Shirley Temple. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Social Register」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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