Mount Vernon Literary Tour: Emily Post

Be Here Stories

The Mount Vernon Literary Tour is created by The Baltimore National Heritage Area (BNHA), which promotes, preserves, and enhances Baltimore's historic and cultural legacy and natural resources for current and future generations. A site-by-site walking tour of this and other destinations is available at www.https://bnha.visit.zone/ Located at 14 East Chase Street Transcript: Emily Post (b. 1873, d. 1960) was born in this house into a family of wealth and privilege. At a time when women of her class were expected to remain at home attending to social and domestic duties, she became a shrewd businesswoman who pioneered a field that flourishes to this day: the etiquette expert. Her career began out of necessity: Post divorced her philandering husband in 1905 and turned to writing to support her two children. She published mostly travel and fiction before her book Etiquette: The Blue Book of Social Usage came out in 1922. It was a huge bestseller. She parlayed her newfound fame into newspaper columns, radio programs, and books on homemaking. Post’s name became synonymous with “proper” behavior. Though often considered old-fashioned or elitist, much of her advice revolved around civility, consideration, and respect. Her book has remained in print, with new editions modernized by her descendants.