Grace Wilson Vanderbilt

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Grace Wilson Vanderbilt, around 1890/1905
Porter Woodruff: Grace Wilson Vanderbilt, 1936

Grace Wilson Vanderbilt , née Grace Graham Wilson (born September 3, 1870 in New York City - † January 8, 1953 ) was a member of the prominent Vanderbilt family by marriage and rose as society queen of New York society at the beginning of the 20th Century on.

Life

Grace Wilson was the eldest daughter of five children of wealthy banker, stockbroker and millionaire Richard Thornton Wilson (1830-1910) and his wife Melissa Graham, a daughter of a wealthy London family. She spent the summers of her youth in Newport , Rhode Island , at her family home. She was educated there by private tutors and at the exclusive Brearley School in New York.

Cornelius Vanderbilt III, around 1890/1900

In 1894 she was briefly engaged to Cecil Baring, the son of a London banker. On August 3, 1896, Grace Wilson married the rubber baron Cornelius Vanderbilt III , called Neily (1873–1942), son of the wealthy businessman and financier Cornelius Vanderbilt II (1843–1899) and his wife Alice Claypoole Gwynne (1845–1899) in New York. 1934); and thus great-grandson of Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt . Her husband was disinherited from his father because of the inappropriate marriage and received in contrast to his siblings, William Henry Vanderbilt II (1870-1922), Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875-1942), Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt (1877-1915), Reginald Claypoole Vanderbilt (1880-1925) and Gladys Moore Vanderbilt (1886-1965), only $ 1 million. The marriage, which all reports said was a happy one, had two children:

⚭ 1920–1927 Rachel Littleton
  • Grace (1899-1964)
⚭ 1927 Henry Gassaway Davis III (survivor of the fall of the RMS Republic )
⚭ 1938 Robert Livingston Stevens

The rivalry between Grace Vanderbilt and her mother-in-law began within a year of her marriage to Cornelius Vanderbilt, with both running a salon in Saratoga . In 1902 the couple traveled to Europe, where they took part in a regatta in Kiel . Here they met Kaiser Wilhelm II and his wife Empress Auguste Viktoria and were often guests in Berlin . At the special request of the emperor, the Vanderbilts were accompanied by Prince Heinrich of Prussia and his nephew, Crown Prince Wilhelm of Prussia .

This was a social rise for Grace Vanderbilt - her dinner parties, cocktail receptions and charity balls for New York society were famous and filled the social columns of the newspapers. In the following years, several members of the European nobility enjoyed the hospitality of the Vanderbilt family, including all British monarchs since Queen Victoria, the Belgian King Albert I with his wife Queen Elisabeth Gabriele , and Tsar Boris III. of Bulgaria , King Håkon VII of Norway and his wife Queen Maud , Queen Marie of Romania and Reza Shah Pahlavi .

In addition to social obligations, Grace Vanderbilt was involved in several charitable organizations; especially the Salvation Army. During the First World War she supported the Red Cross organization financially . In the 1930s she collected money and donations in kind for the needy New York population; and during World War II she supported various American organizations.

Grace Vanderbilt died in her New York townhouse ( 1048 Fifth Avenue ) from the effects of pneumonia and was buried beside her husband in the family vault of the Vanderbilts.

siblings

Her siblings were:

  • Brother Richard T. Wilson, Jr., married Katherine Garrison, granddaughter of Commodore Cornelius Kingsland Garrison (1809-1885), shipowner, capitalist, Mayor of San Francisco 1853-1854.
  • Sister May Wilson married Ogden Goelet (1851-1897), millionaire, real estate agent, yacht owner (member of the New York Yacht Club ). They had two children, May and Robert Goelet II.
  • eldest brother Marshall Orme Wilson (1860-1926), married Caroline Schermerhorn Astor (1861-1948), daughter of William Backhouse Astor junior (1829-1892) and his wife Caroline Webster Schermerhorn (1830-1908). William B. Astor, Jr. was the father of Colonel John Jacob Astor IV .
  • Sister Leila B. Wilson married The Honorable Michael Henry Herbert (1857-1903), brother of the Earl of Pembroke , son of Sidney Herbert 1st Baron Herbert of Lea and Lady Mary Elizabeth Court-Repington in 1888. Herbert was Secretary of State at the British Embassy in Paris and a close relative of Lord Carnarvon .

Worth mentioning

literature

  • Cornelius Vanderbilt: Queen of the Golden Age: The Fabulous Story of Grace Wilson Vanderbilt , George Mann Books (1989) ISBN 0-7041-0295-1
  • Charles Mosley: Burke's Peerage and Baronetage , Switzerland: Burke's Peerage Genealogical Books Ltd (1999)
  • Charles Mosley: Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage , Wilmington, Delaware: Burke's Peerage Genealogical Books Ltd (2003)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography: Being the History of the United States. Volume 42, White, New York, p. 25
  2. ↑ http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F50C14FB3458177B93CAA9178AD85F478585F9
  3. ↑ The Queenly Kingfisher - Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt, America's collector of royalty, this at 83. Life, New York January 19, 1953, p 35
personal data
SURNAME Wilson Vanderbilt, Grace
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Grace Graham Wilson
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American high society lady, member of the Vanderbilt family
DATE OF BIRTH September 3, 1870
PLACE OF BIRTH New York City
DATE OF DEATH January 8, 1953
Place of death New York City