In 18th-century London, the royal morning receptions that the French called
levées were called "drawing rooms", with the sense originally that the privileged members of court would gather in the drawing room outside the king's bedroom, where he would make his first formal public appearance of the day. During the
American Civil War, in the
White House of the Confederacy in
Richmond, Virginia, the drawing room was off the
parlor where
CSA President
Jefferson Davis greeted his guests. At the conclusion of these greetings, the men remained in the parlor to talk politics and the women withdrew to the drawing room for their own conversation. This was common practice in the affluent circles of the
Southern United States. In 1865, an architectural manual in England defined "drawing room" in this way: Until the mid-twentieth century, after a dinner the ladies of a
dinner party withdrew to the drawing room, leaving the gentlemen at table, where the
tablecloth was removed. After an interval of conversation, often accompanied by brandy or port and sometimes cigars, the gentlemen rejoined the ladies in the drawing room. The term
drawing room is not used as widely as it once was, and tends to be used in Britain only by those who also have other reception rooms, such as a morning room, a 19th-century designation for a
sitting room, often with east-facing exposure, suited for daytime calls, or the middle-class
lounge, a late-19th-century designation for a room in which to relax. Hence the drawing room is the smartest room in the house, usually used by the adults of the family when entertaining. This term is widely used in
India and
Pakistan, probably dating from the colonial days, in the larger urban houses of the cities where there are many rooms. The term
parlour initially designated the more modest reception rooms of the middle classes, but usage changed in the UK as homeowners sought to identify with the grander homes of the wealthy. Parlor remained the common usage in North America into the early 20th century. In French usage the word
salon, previously designating a
state room, began to be used for a drawing room in the early part of the 19th century, reflecting the
salon social gatherings that had become popular in the preceding decades. ==Railway usage==