America's Secret Aristocracy (49 page)

Gouverneur Morris and his New York manor, Morrisania.
BOTH COURTESY OF THE NEW-YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY, NEW YORK CITY

John Jay. America's first Chief Justice, and his beautiful wife, the former Sarah Livingston. They tied the dynastic knot of money, power, and property.
JOHN JAY, THE BETTMANN ARCHIVE, INC.; SARAH LIVINGSTON JAY,
THE QUEENS OF AMERICAN SOCIETY
BY ELIZABETH ELLET [PHILADELPHIA: PORTER & COATES. 1867]

Liberty Hall in New Jersey, childhood home of Sarah Livingston Jay.
ILLUSTRATION BY DORIS STOLBERG FROM
PATRIOT'S LADY
BY LOIS HOBART [NEW YORK: THOMAS Y. CROWELL. 1960]. COPYRIGHT © 1960 BY LOIS HOBART. REPRINTED BY PERMISSION OF HARPER & ROW. PUBLISHERS. INC
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Clermont in Tivoli-on-Hudson, New York, home of Robert R. Livingston.
COURTESY OF THE NEW-YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY, NEW YORK CITY

John Jacob Astor. Whenever old families needed an infusion of wealth, his fortune would come in handy.
THE BETTMANN ARCHIVE, INC
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The eccentric John Randolph of Roanoke, Virginia.

Three Philadelphia aristocrats: Nicholas Biddle, Robert Morris, and John Cadwalader.
THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF PENNSYLVANIA

Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt and their children in their Washington home in 1916, when Roosevelt was assistant secretary of the navy.
THE BETTMANN ARCHIVE, INC
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Charleston's Mrs. St. Julien Ravenel. She betrayed her class by spilling the secrets of St. Cecilia.
SOUTH CAROLINA HISTORICAL SOCIETY

The Great Splurge era produced “cottages” like Rosecliff in Newport.
THE PRESERVATION SOCIETY OF NEWPORT COUNTY

John Jay Chapman, the mad belletrist praised by Edmund Wilson.
THE BETTMANN ARCHIVE, INC
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St. Louis's ebullient and irascible August Anheuser Busch.
MISSOURI HISTORICAL SOCIETY
,
PHOTOGRAPHER: STRAUSS

Presentation of Lila Childress as queen of the Veiled Prophet's Ball. 1935.
MISSOURI HISTORICAL SOCIETY, PHOTOGRAPHER: EUGENE TAYLOR, NEGATIVE NUMBER: EVENTS 152