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An Expensive Imitation: How The Vanderbilt Family Became The House Of Vanderbilt, Hugh Long

Global Tides

By examining a range of sources from Gilded Age newspaper articles to architectural photographs to historical commentaries, this paper attempts to prove that the esteemed Vanderbilt family was imitating European Aristocracy. By examining first hand accounts of parties that family members threw, houses that they built, and places they traveled to, the paper develops its thesis. The use of primary sources is abundant and attempts to integrate the family’s story of progression from a small clan to one of the most powerful American “houses” into the concrete evidence. Pictures and visual evidence are key in showing material examples of how …