Edwin L. Thomas
- Position
- Valet
- Years in President's House
- circa 1883 – 1884
- Legal Status
- Free Person
- Gender
- Male
- Race/Ethnicity
- Black or African American
- Presidency
- Chester A. Arthur
- Biography
Edwin L. Thomas was born in Washington, D.C. Little is known about his life. He appears only occasionally in the historical record, including in the 1883 Official Register of the United States, which lists all federal government employees and includes Thomas as a laborer at the White House.1
Contemporary newspaper accounts provide additional insight into his service. Several 1884 articles described Thomas as an assistant to Daniel Spriggs, the valet to President Chester A. Arthur’s son, Chester Alan Arthur II.2 Because Arthur II spent much of his father's presidency away from Washington, both Spriggs and Thomas reportedly performed other duties at the White House, although the exact nature of Thomas’s work remains unknown. Little else has been discovered about his life or service at this time.
- Official Register of the United States Containing a List of Officers and Employees in the Civil, Military and Naval Service, vol. 1 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1883), 370, https://www.google.com/books/edition/Official_Register_of_the_United_States/qbBDAQAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1.
- “Private Servants on Public Pay,” The Item (Glen Rock, Pa.), November 28, 1884, 1, https://www.newspapers.com/image/774114723/?match=1; “Private Servants on Public Pay,” Daily Eastern Argus (Portland, Maine), May 28, 1884, 4, https://www.newspapers.com/image/846741736/?match=1; “The President’s Hopeful Son,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch (St. Louis, Missouri), May 20, 1884, 1, https://www.newspapers.com/image/137820459/?match=1&clipping_id=new.
- Birthplace
- Washington, D.C., USA
- Unclear from Context