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The Most Powerful Family
in America
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Frederick William Vanderbilt |
Cornelius Vanderbilt |
William Henry Vanderbilt |
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1856-1938 |
1794-1877 |
1821-1885 |
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| Frederick William Vanderbilt was the grandson
of Cornelius "Commodore" Vanderbilt and the son of
William Henry Vanderbilt - both the richest men in America in
their time. The Vanderbilts redefined what it meant to be wealthy.
"Up to this time," wrote social observer Ward McAllister,
"for one to be worth a million of dollars was to be rated
as a man of fortune." By the 1880s, "fortune"
connoted "ten millions, fifty millions, one hundred millions,
and the necessities and luxuries followed suit." |
| How did the richest family in America spend
money? Yachting, horse breeding, and racing automobiles became
family avocations. They attended opera, attired in top hats and
tiaras, and collected art. They gave to worthy causes, married
European titles. Every one of William Henry's eight children
eventually owned a mansion on Fifth Avenue as well as several
"cottages" in the country or by the sea. With their
grandfather's millions, the younger Vanderbilts gained admission
to drawing rooms and ballrooms where the Commodore himself would
have been unwelcome. |
| Along with his father's fortune,
William Henry inherited the mixed blessing of fame for himself
and his descendents. Their births, marriages, divorces, business
doings, philanthropies, and scandals made for lively newspaper
copy from the 1880s well into the 20th century. "Thank God
for the Vanderbilts," a society columnist wrote. "The
Vanderbilt family can always be relied upon in times of dullness
to furnish either news or a sensation of some kind." |
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Roosevelt-Vanderbilt
National Historic Sites
4097 Albany Post Road
Hyde Park, NY 12538
Last updated: February 9, 2001
http://www.nps.gov/vama/family.html
Author:ROVA
Webmaster
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