Ava Lowle Willing was born on September 15, 1868 in Newport, Rhode Island, the daughter of Edward Shippen Willing and Alice Caroline Barton. She came from an old and distinguished Philadelphia family with deep colonial roots. Through her father she descended from Thomas Willing, Revolutionary era mayor of Philadelphia and president of the First Bank of the United States, while her mother's family, the Bartons, were also prominent in Pennsylvania society. She grew up with her siblings John Rhea Barton Willing, Susan Ridgway Willing, and Edward Shippen Willing Jr. On February 17, 1891 she married Colonel John Jacob Astor IV, heir to one of the greatest fortunes in America. Their wedding was held at her parents' home in Philadelphia and was followed by a honeymoon in Europe. The couple were given a grand townhouse on Fifth Avenue in New York as a wedding gift from his parents. In 1896 they moved into the newly completed Astor double mansion on Fifth Avenue. After the death of his father William Backhouse Astor Jr., John Jacob inherited Ferncliff, the family's estate at Rhinebeck, and following the death of his mother Caroline Astor he came into possession of Beechwood, the Astor summer mansion in Newport. Together they had three children, William Vincent Astor, born in 1892, an infant son born and died in 1896, and Ava Alice Muriel Astor, born in 1902. By the later 1890s Ava had established herself as a presence in London society, often renting furnished houses during extended stays abroad. Although surrounded by wealth and luxury her marriage was not a happy one. In 1909 Ava filed for divorce on the grounds of desertion. The divorce was finalized in March 1910 with a settlement of ten million dollars, an extraordinary sum for the time. Custody of their children was divided, with Vincent remaining largely with his father and Muriel with her mother. In 1911 Ava returned to England with her daughter and settled there more permanently. At this time she leased Sutton Place, a Tudor country estate near Guildford, Surrey, which she maintained until 1919. In January 1912 she prepared to take up residence at 18 Grosvenor Square, her first permanent London townhouse after years of renting furnished properties; it was extensively redecorated to her specifications. Titanic On April 15, 1912, only a few months after she acquired her new London home, tragedy struck when her former husband, Colonel John Jacob Astor IV, lost his life in the sinking of the RMS Titanic. Their son Vincent, then only twenty years old, inherited the majority of his father's estate and responsibilities. Though living in England, Ava returned to America at intervals to support her son while continuing to raise Muriel in London society. During the First World War she served with the American Women's War Relief Fund in Britain, holding the post of vice president and supporting hospitals and relief work. Thomas Lister, Baron Ribblesdale On June 3, 1919 she married Thomas Lister, 4th Baron Ribblesdale. By this marriage she was known as Lady Ribblesdale. The couple resided at her Grosvenor Square townhouse until his death in 1925. There were no children of the marriage. In the years that followed she divided her time between England and America. In 1935 she was reported in New York visiting from England and staying at her townhouse on East 38th Street. In 1938 she placed her large London home by Regent's Park, known as Regent's Lodge, on the market and that same winter was noted as a Palm Beach hostess at the Everglades Club. The Second World War brought her back to the United States for good. In June 1940 she arrived in New York aboard the SS President Roosevelt as a war refugee. In July 1940 she formally resumed American citizenship, renouncing the use of her British peeress title and taking the name Mrs. Ava Willing Ribblesdale. That December she was again in New York society, hosting dinners at the Iridium Room of the St. Regis attended by members of the Astor and Vanderbilt families. In November 1941 she leased an apartment at 420 Park Avenue, later making her home at 720 Park Avenue, where she continued to entertain and was remembered for quiet charitable work carried on without publicity. Ava Willing Ribblesdale Ava Lowle Willing Ribblesdale died on June 9, 1958 in New York City at the age of 89. She was buried at Locust Valley Cemetery in Nassau County, Long Island. Ava Willing Ribblesdale rests in Addition 2, Lot 174B of Locust Valley Cemetery

Frank E. Campbell Frank Ellis Campbell was born July 4, 1872 in Camp Point, Adams County, Illinois. He learned the funeral trade by making caskets in what he called an undertaker's shop, and at the age of twenty moved to New York City to work in funeral parlors run by a minister. Not long after, he opened his own establishment on 23rd Street near Eighth Avenue. At a time when most funerals were still held in private homes and the deceased were transported in horse-drawn wagons, Campbell modernized the profession. He was among the first to use motorized hearses and limousines, began placing paid death notices in newspapers, introduced women to embalming and directing, and even purchased a private yacht, The Hour Glass, for transporting remains and scattering ashes at sea. His reputation grew as he served prominent families and organized high-profile services. International attention followed the 1921 funeral of opera star Enrico Caruso. His name became permanently associated with celebrity funerals after the death of silent film idol Rudolph Valentino in 1926. Valentino's viewing in New York drew massive crowds and intense press coverage, making Campbell's funeral home widely known. The Funeral of Rudolph Valentino in the chapel at Frank E, Campbell Funeral Home Campbell died in Manhattan on January 19, 1934 at the age of sixty-one. He had arranged to be placed with his mother, Malvina, in the Bergen Crest Mausoleum in North Bergen, New Jersey, and his body was sealed in an oversized solid bronze casket. When the time came, the mausoleum crypts proved too small to receive the caskets. Instead of being entombed, both were left in a storage area under a stairway. There they remained, forgotten and unseen, for more than half a century. In the late 1980s, Eugene Schultz, then president of the Frank E. Campbell Funeral Chapel, discovered the situation while visiting Bergen Crest. He found the caskets blackened with age and still in the mausoleum's basement. Schultz spent years trying to have the building adapted to accept the remains but little progress was made. Eventually he located surviving relatives, including Frank Jr.'s widow in Florida and Frank's granddaughter Anne Campbell in Washington State, and secured permission for reinterment. With family consent and the cooperation of the funeral home's modern owners, arrangements were made to move Frank and his mother to Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx. Each casket weighed about 1,400 pounds and required careful handling and cleaning. Frank & Malvina's Gravestone, Courtesy of Neil Funkhouser On October 3, 2001, after a proper service and full preparation, Frank Ellis Campbell and his mother were finally placed at rest in the Aster Plot, Section 210 at Woodlawn. After decades without a true burial place, both were given the dignified interment Campbell had originally intended. Here is a great write up in American Cemetery about the reburial

John Jacob “Jack” Astor IV was born July 13, 1864, at Ferncliff, the Astor family estate in Rhinebeck, New York. He was the youngest child of William Backhouse Astor Jr and Caroline Webster Schermerhorn Astor, remembered as “the Mrs. Astor,” the social leader of New York’s Gilded Age. Jack’s childhood was one of wealth and expectation. He was raised in the family’s brownstone at 350 Fifth Avenue, educated at St. Paul’s School in Concord, New Hampshire, and later at Harvard University. After graduation he traveled in Europe, gaining the polish expected of a young man in his position. He wrote a futuristic novel, patented mechanical inventions, and later volunteered as a colonel during the Spanish American War. Ava Lowle Willing On February 17, 1891, he married Ava Lowle Willing of Philadelphia in a society wedding that joined two old-money families. They returned to live in New York, surrounded by the rituals of high society. Together they had three children, William Vincent Astor, an infant son who died in 1896, and Ava Alice Muriel Astor. After the death of his father in 1892, Jack inherited Ferncliff in Rhinebeck. There he made additions and built new wings, hosting guests for country weekends. When his mother chose to leave the old mansion at 350 Fifth Avenue, she commissioned Richard Morris Hunt to design a new house on Fifth Avenue at 65th Street. Completed in 1896, it was a double mansion with identical wings, one side for Mrs. Astor and one side for Jack and his family. It became one of the architectural marvels of New York society, with Mrs. Astor holding court in her famous ballroom and Jack entertaining in his own wing. When she died in 1908, Jack inherited her Newport estate, Beechwood, and had Hunt’s double mansion renovated into one vast residence, uniting the two houses into a single palatial home that became his main residence in the city. The Astor Double Mansion at 840 and 841 Fifth Avenue Their marriage grew cold, and after nearly two decades Ava filed for divorce, granted in 1910, an event that filled newspaper columns with scandal and speculation. By then Jack was regarded as one of the richest men in America, with homes in New York and Newport, Ferncliff in the country, and vast real estate holdings. Madeleine Talmage Force In 1910, at Bar Harbor, Maine, Jack met the young debutante Madeleine Talmage Force while she was playing tennis with her sister. Despite their nearly thirty-year age difference, the two fell in love. Their wedding on September 9, 1911, at Beechwood in Newport was one of the most controversial unions of the age, condemned in society columns for its haste after his divorce and for Madeleine’s youth. Yet Jack and Madeleine left it all behind, traveling together on a grand honeymoon through Europe and Egypt. By the time they prepared to return in the spring of 1912, Madeleine was expecting their first child. They booked passage on the RMS Titanic, boarding at Cherbourg. On the night of April 14, 1912, after the collision with an iceberg, Jack assisted his young wife to the lifeboats. He asked if he might accompany her because she was with child, but was refused. Madeleine was placed in a boat and survived, but Jack remained on deck. He was last seen calm, smoking a cigarette as the great liner settled lower in the sea. He perished in the early hours of April 15. His body was recovered a week later by the cable ship Mackay-Bennett, identified as Body No. 124. The discovery was front-page news. On May 4, 1912, a funeral service was held at the Church of the Messiah in Rhinebeck, where Jack had served as a Warden. The church was filled with lilies, roses, and palms, and society mourners crowded the pews. Dr. Ernest C. Saunders, the rector, conducted the service, assisted by Dr. William T. Manning of Trinity Church, New York. The service drew neighbors, friends, and notables from far beyond Dutchess County. Afterward, the casket was carried to Rhinecliff Station, where a special funeral train awaited. This train bore the casket and mourners down the Hudson to Manhattan, where waiting automobiles carried them to Trinity Church Cemetery. At the Astor family mausoleum, clergy and family gathered as Dr. Manning read the Episcopal burial office. The final commendation was spoken and Jack was laid to rest beside his mother and other Astor kin. The press described the scene in vivid detail: the special train, the veiled widow, the quiet dignity of Vincent Astor, and the hush among the crowd of hundreds who watched America bury one of its richest and most famous men. The Astor Mausoleum at Trinity Cemetery In August 1912 Madeleine gave birth to his son, John Jacob Astor VI, remembered as the “Titanic Baby.”

Kiki Preston (October 8, 1896 - December 23, 1946) Her drug addiction earned her the nickname "the girl with the silver syringe". Kiki was born in Chatou, France, the daughter of Edward Erskine Gwynne, Sr. and his wife Helen Steele. Preston's mother was a great-granddaughter of Justice Samuel Chase, one of the signatories of the United States Declaration of Independence, as well as a granddaughter of Joshua Barney, commodore of the United States Navy during the American Revolutionary War. She was descended from Peter Jacquette, the second Dutch governor of Delaware. Preston's father was the nephew of Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt II (Alice Gwynne Vanderbilt). Alice "kiki" Gwynne in 1919, Kiki married Horace R. Bigelow Allen. They had a daughter, Alice Gwynne Allen, and a son, Ethan Allen. In November 1924, Kiki applied for divorce at the Paris courts, on the grounds of desertion. Horace Ransom Bigelow Allen In April 1925, Kiki married investment banker Jerome "Gerry" Preston. Kiki had many lovers during that time, including actor Rudolph Valentino and Prince George, Duke of Kent, whom she first met in the mid-1920s. Through 1928, she introduced him to cocaine and morphine among other drugs. In the 1930s and 1940s, Kiki experienced a long string of tragic losses, as many people from her circle of relatives and friends found untimely deaths. Previously, in May 1929, her 30-year-old brother, Erskine almost died of a heart attack. Kiki rushed back to Paris to be by his side, since it was believed he was close to dying. Erskine ultimately survived. Erskine Gwynne On November 16, 1933, her cousin, 26-year-old socialite William Kissam Vanderbilt III , was killed in a car accident; her brother, Erskine, was also in the car, but suffered minor injuries. In August 1935, Erskine was in another accident, when the car he was driving collided with a truck, injuring three. He was tried and fined 50 dollars and also sentenced to a thirty-day suspended sentence. On account of that accident, Erskine later suffered a paralysis in 1938. He died on May 5th 1948. On May 28, 1934, Kiki's husband, Jerome died at Hotel Pierre, in New York, aged 37, making her a widow at the age of 36. In February 1937, her brother-in-law (Jerome's brother), sportsman Lewis Thompson Preston also died, at age 37. On January 25, 1941, her friend, 22nd Earl of Erroll , aged 39, was mysteriously murdered in Kenya. Later that year, on September 30, her friend and fellow American expatriate in Paris, Alice Silverthorne de Janzé , committed suicide with a firearm. On 25 August 1942, her former lover, Prince George , was killed in a plane accident, aged 39. Stanhope Hotel After suffering from mental disorders for several years, Kiki committed suicide on the night of December 23, 1946, jumping out of a window of her fifth-floor apartment in the Stanhope Hotel of New York City and landing in a courtyard of the hotel. According to her companion, Lillian Turner, Kiki had been in poor health, depressed and nervous. Turner had just given Preston a glass of milk and then went into the living room of the apartment to read. When she heard no sounds coming from Kiki's bedroom, she entered it, only to find a window open and Kiki gone. Kiki's pajama-clad body was soon discovered in an areaway behind the hotel. Preston's mother, Helen Steele, was also living at the same hotel at the time. Alice "kiki' Gwynne Preston was cremated, Her ashes and that of her father, mother, and brother were interred in the Gwynne family plot at Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, Ny. Edward, Alice, & Erskine's names are inscribed, Her mother who survived them all has no inscription. The Gwynne family plot, Evergreen Plot, Section 36 of The Woodlawn Cemetery, Bronx, NY.

Edward Julius Berwind (June 17, 1848 - August 18, 1936) Edward Julius Berwind was an American business magnate and one of the most prominent coal operators of the Gilded Age. He was born in Philadelphia on June 17, 1848. Appointed to the United States Naval Academy by President Abraham Lincoln, he later served as a naval aide during the Grant administration before leaving the service to enter business. Together with his brother Charles F. Berwind and Judge Allison White, he organized the Berwind-White Coal Mining Company . Working closely with financier J. P. Morgan , the firm consolidated and expanded coal operations throughout Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Kentucky, and Colorado. At its height, Berwind was regarded as the largest individual owner of coal properties in the world. His company towns included Windber in Pennsylvania, its name formed from a transposition of "Berwind," and Berwind in West Virginia, which housed thousands of miners and their families. Subsidiaries such as the Kyber Coal Company in Kentucky also carried his name. Peter Arrell Browne Widener The company supplied much of the coal used by the United States Navy, and through his business partnerships with Peter A. B. Widener , Berwind was involved in the establishment of the New York subway system. He also served as a director of the International Mercantile Marine Company, which owned the White Star Line and by extension the Titanic. He wielded enormous influence over the steamship business in both New York and Philadelphia. Berwind was known as an inflexible employer who refused to bargain with labor unions and maintained closed-shop policies in the coal fields. During the 1922 coal strike, his company imposed wage reductions of up to 54 percent, and striking workers were ordered to vacate company-owned housing within five days, forcing many families into temporary tent settlements. His reputation as a "robber baron" was shaped by such practices, though his company endured, and the Berwind Corporation continues today as a family-owned business managing vast real estate holdings and mineral rights. Sarah Vesta Herminie Torrey In 1886, Berwind was married to Sarah Vesta Herminie Torrey in Leghorn , Italy . The couple never had children, Sarah died in 1922. His personal life reflected the grandeur of the Gilded Age, expressed most vividly through his residences. In Philadelphia, he maintained a distinguished townhouse that reflected his family’s long ties to that city. In Manhattan, he commissioned a grand limestone mansion at Fifth Avenue and East 64th Street, completed in 1896. Berwind Mansion, Manhattan, New York Designed in the French Beaux-Arts style by architect Nathan Clark Mellen, the house was one of the largest private residences built in New York during the era. Its double-height ballroom, ornate interiors, and prominent location made it a showplace of Fifth Avenue society. In Newport, Rhode Island, he commissioned Horace Trumbauer to design The Elms, a summer residence modeled after the Château d’Asnières near Paris, completed in 1901. This estate, staffed by dozens of servants and set within elaborate formal gardens, became one of the grand symbols of Newport society and remains preserved today as a National Historic Landmark. The elms, Newport Rhode Island Edward Julius Berwind died in Manhattan on August 18, 1936, at the age of 88. He was entombed in the Berwind Mausoleum at West Laurel Hill Cemetery in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania. The mausoleum, modeled after the Tower of the Winds in Athens, was designed by Horace Trumbauer and built by Presbrey Leland, standing as an enduring monument to his wealth and legacy. Berwind Mausoleum, West Laurel Hill Cemetery, Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania Berwind Mausoleum, Details & Inscription Above The Door Interior View of the Berwind Mausoleum

Baroness Decies by Giovanni Boldini (April 22, 1868 - June 13, 1944) Elizabeth Wharton "Bessie" Drexel de la Poer Beresford was an American heiress, socialite, and author whose life reflected the wealth, glamour, and contradictions of the Gilded Age. She was born on April 22, 1868, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the daughter of philanthropist Joseph William Drexel and Lucy Wharton Drexel. Through her lineage she was connected to one of America's leading banking families, her uncle being financier Anthony J. Drexel. John Vinton Dahlgren Her first marriage was to , son of Admiral John A. Dahlgren and grandson of diplomat William Preston. They were introduced through family and social connections in Washington and Philadelphia, where both families were well known. Widowed at the age of thirty-one after John's death in 1899, she was left to raise their son alone. Harry Lehr In 1901 she married Harry Symes Lehr, a well-known figure in New York and Newport society. Lehr, a witty entertainer of the fashionable elite, was introduced to her by Edith Gould. He admitted candidly that he had married her for her fortune, explaining that poverty "terrified" him. For nearly three decades their union, which she later described as "a tragic farce," endured as a hollow partnership. During this time the couple lived largely in Paris, where Bessie devoted herself to charitable work, particularly with the American Red Cross during World War I. She also restored the seventeenth-century Hôtel de Cavoye, which became her treasured Paris residence.   After Lehr's death in 1929, she published her first memoir, King Lehr and the Gilded Age (1935). The book caused a sensation for its candid portrayal of the extravagance, scandals, and hypocrisies of turn-of-the-century high society, and was described as one of the most startling and scandalously intimate records of life among the wealthy. Her second book, Turn of the World (1937), continued her reflections on the glittering social world she had known, mixing nostalgia with frank criticism of its excesses. Baron Decies In 1936 she married John Graham Hope de la Poer Beresford, the fifth Baron Decies, an Anglo-Irish peer known for his charm and cosmopolitan background. Their engagement was announced from Paris, and their courtship took place after her literary success and years of residence abroad. With him, she found renewed companionship and happiness. Elizabeth Drexel de la Poer Beresford died on June 13, 1944, at the Hotel Shelton in Manhattan at the age of seventy-six. She was interred in the family crypt at Dahlgren Memorial Chapel in Washington, D.C. Dahlgren Memorial Chapel

Self-portrait at Montorsoli, 1892 (December 31, 1842 - January 11, 1931) Portrait Painter. Giovanni Boldini was born on December 31, 1842 in Ferrara, Italy, the son of a painter of religious subjects and younger brother of the architect Luigi (Louis) Boldini. Showing early promise as an artist, he went to Florence in 1862 to study, though he only occasionally attended formal classes at the Academy of Fine Arts. In Florence he encountered the group of realist painters known as the Macchiaioli, precursors of Impressionism, whose quick, spontaneous style left a lasting mark on his own landscapes and brushwork. By the late 1860s Boldini had moved to London, where he built a reputation as a portraitist of fashionable society. His sitters included leading figures such as Lady Holland and the Duchess of Westminster. His portraits captured elegance and vitality, traits that became the hallmarks of his style. In 1872 he settled permanently in Paris. There he befriended Edgar Degas and immersed himself in the city's thriving artistic world. Boldini quickly became the most sought-after portrait painter of Belle Époque Paris, rivaling John Singer Sargent in both clientele and style. His paintings of high society women were marked by flowing lines, bravura brushstrokes, and a sense of energy that captured both likeness and spirit. His sitters included aristocrats, actresses, and members of the cosmopolitan elite, cementing his status as the "painter of the elegant." His career also brought him recognition beyond France. In 1889 he was appointed commissioner of the Italian section of the Paris Exposition and was awarded the Légion d'honneur for his service. He exhibited internationally, including a solo exhibition in New York in 1897, and participated in several Venice Biennales in 1895, 1903, 1905, and 1912. Boldini's style, blending Italian sensibility with Parisian modernity, made him one of the defining portraitists of his era. His paintings remain celebrated for their glamour, energy, and the psychological depth with which he portrayed his sitters. Alice Guérin's Portrait of Giovanni Boldini He died in Paris on January 11, 1931 at the age of 88. Giovanni Boldini is buried in the Certosa Monumental Cemetery in his native Ferrara, Italy.

Portrait of Consuelo Vanderbilt Earl, 1931 by Painter: Artur Lajos Halmi (November 24, 1903 - February 21, 2011) Consuelo Vanderbilt , known to family and friends as “Consie,” was born in Manhattan on November 24, 1903. She was the daughter of William Kissam Vanderbilt II and Virginia Graham Fair, daughter of U.S. Senator James Graham Fair of Nevada, one of the famed “Silver Kings” of the Comstock Lode. Consuelo Vanderbilt Through her father she was a great-great-granddaughter of Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt, the shipping and railroad magnate who established the Vanderbilt family fortune. She was raised in a family of immense privilege and prominence. Consie had two siblings: William Kissam Vanderbilt III, a noted yachtsman and automobile enthusiast who died tragically in an automobile accident in 1933, and Muriel Vanderbilt, who became a well-known socialite and thoroughbred horse breeder. On her maternal side, she was the niece of Theresa “Tessie” Fair Oelrichs, the celebrated Newport society leader whose mansion Rosecliff  became one of the most famous of the Gilded Age “cottages.” Her paternal uncle was Harold Stirling Vanderbilt, the last Vanderbilt to be directly involved in the family’s railroad empire and a three-time America’s Cup winner. These family connections placed Consie firmly within the center of both East Coast society and Western mining wealth. Earl Edward Tailer Smith In 1926, she married Earl Edward Tailer Smith, who later served as United States Ambassador to Cuba from 1957 to 1959 during the turbulent years of Fidel Castro’s rise to power. Smith published The Fourth Floor: An Account of the Castro Communist Revolution  recounting his experiences. Together they had two daughters, Virginia Consuelo Smith (later Burke) and Iris Smith (later Christ). Her marriage to Smith ended in divorce, and in 1936 she married Henry Gassaway Davis III, grandson of U.S. Senator Henry Gassaway Davis of West Virginia, the 1904 Democratic vice-presidential nominee. That union was also short-lived. In 1941 she wed William John Warburton III of Philadelphia society, though this marriage too was brief. In 1951 she married Noble Clarkson Earl, Jr., a businessman and sportsman. Together they established Iridale Farms  in Ridgefield, Connecticut, which became known for its livestock and, most notably, their champion Skye terriers. The Earls were longtime participants in dog shows and breed clubs, and their Ridgefield estate reflected Consie’s lifelong devotion to animals. She decorated the property with stone statues of dogs, and one room of her home was dedicated entirely to her beloved companions, complete with a fireplace inlaid with coins depicting dogs. Noble Clarkson Earl, Jr. died in 1969. Consuelo's Ridgefield Connecticut Estate Consie remained in Ridgefield for the rest of her life, becoming a respected and beloved figure in the community. She supported the Animal Medical Center in New York and other causes, continuing the Vanderbilt tradition of philanthropy. She was remembered for her elegance, humor, and vitality, as well as for her devotion to the welfare of animals. She celebrated her birthdays every year, often with cake and champagne, right up until her 107th in November 2010. She was among the last of her generation of Vanderbilts, and counted among her cousins Gloria Vanderbilt and Gloria’s son, journalist Anderson Cooper. Consuelo “Consie” Vanderbilt Earl died at her home in Ridgefield, Connecticut, on February 21, 2011, at the remarkable age of 107. She was survived by her daughter Virginia Consuelo Smith Burke of Palm Beach, Florida, seven grandchildren, and eighteen great-grandchildren. Her daughter Iris predeceased her. She was laid to rest at Saint Mary’s Cemetery in Ridgefield, Fairfield County, Connecticut,

Virginia Graham Fair Vanderbilt by Giovanni Boldini in 1905 (January 2, 1875 - July 7, 1935) Virginia Graham Fair Vanderbilt was born on January 2, 1875, in San Francisco, California, the daughter of Senator James Graham Fair, one of the famed "Bonanza Kings" of the Nevada Comstock Lode, and Theresa Rooney Fair. James Graham Fair Known as Birdie, she grew up surrounded by extraordinary wealth and prominence. Her father's fortune in silver mining made her one of the wealthiest young women in America, and she was regarded as one of the most admired heiresses of her generation. On March 26, 1903, she married William Kissam Vanderbilt II, eldest son of William Kissam Vanderbilt and Alva Erskine Smith Vanderbilt. The marriage united the Vanderbilt railroad fortune of the East with the Fair silver fortune of the West and was one of the most celebrated unions of its time. The couple had three children: Muriel Fair Vanderbilt, who became a philanthropist and horsewoman; Consuelo Vanderbilt, who lived a long and quiet life; and William Kissam Vanderbilt III, whose promising life was cut short by an automobile accident in 1933 at the age of twenty-six. Virginia and William separated after several years of marriage and were formally divorced in 1927. Following the separation, she began establishing residences of her own. On Long Island she built a large country estate in Jericho and Brookville, designed by the architect John Russell Pope in the early 1910s. The house was among the notable North Shore estates of its day, although it was later demolished. 60 East 93rd Street In New York City she commissioned a 51-room French Classical style townhouse at 60 East 93rd Street, completed in 1931, also designed by Pope. The residence reflected her taste and stature and later served as the home of the Lycée Français de New York before returning to private use. Beyond her private homes, Virginia maintained ties to San Francisco through the Fair family's role in the creation of the Fairmont Hotel on Nob Hill. Along with her sister, Theresa Fair Oelrichs, she oversaw its construction and later reconstruction after the 1906 earthquake. The hotel was named for their father and became a landmark of the city. Virginia was admired for her elegance, generosity, and devotion to her Roman Catholic faith. She supported a number of Catholic charities throughout her life and was remembered as a woman of quiet influence and dignity. Her later years, however, were clouded by personal sorrow. The sudden death of her son William in 1933 deeply affected her, and her health began to decline. She suffered a prolonged illness during the spring and summer of 1935 and died in New York City on July 7, 1935, at the age of sixty. Her funeral was a private service held at her New York residence, attended by family and close friends. Virginia Graham Fair Vanderbilt was buried at Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, New York, not far from her sister Theresa.

(June 11, 1851 - August 27, 1897) Ogden Goelet was born in New York City on June 11, 1851, the son of Robert Goelet and Sarah Ogden Goelet. He was a member of one of New York's wealthiest families, heirs to a fortune rooted in extensive Manhattan real estate holdings that had been built over generations. Alongside his brother, Robert Walton Goelet, he expanded this legacy, becoming known as both a financier and a developer at a time when the city was undergoing rapid growth. In 1877 Goelet married Mary Reta "May" Wilson. The couple had two children, Ogden Goelet Jr. and Mary Goelet, and were prominent figures in both New York and Newport society. In the early 1880s the Goelet brothers financed and constructed several notable buildings, including the Gorham Building , the Judge Building , the Goelet Building, and the Metropolitan Club . These projects not only reinforced their family's place among New York's leading landowners but also helped to shape the commercial architecture of late nineteenth-century Manhattan. Goelet was equally celebrated as a yachtsman. A member of the New York Yacht Club, he competed in regattas and established the Ogden Cup, awarded in the club's annual races off Newport, Rhode Island. the Mayflower His yacht, the Mayflower , was regarded as one of the finest sailing vessels of its day. After his death it was acquired by the United States Navy, serving as Admiral George Dewey's flagship during the Spanish-American War and later as a presidential yacht. Ochre Court In keeping with the traditions of New York's elite, Goelet built a grand summer residence in Newport. In the 1890s he commissioned architect Richard Morris Hunt to design Ochre Court, a French chateau-style mansion on Bellevue Avenue. At a cost of more than four million dollars, it was among the largest and most splendid homes of the Gilded Age, a centerpiece of Newport society life. The property was later donated by his family to the Religious Sisters of Mercy and today forms part of Salve Regina University. Ogden Goelet died suddenly aboard his yacht at Cowes, Isle of Wight, England, on August 27, 1897, at the age of forty-six. He was entombed in the Goelet Mausoleum at Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx. Goelet Mausoleum at Woodlawn Cemetery Courtesy of Neil Funkhouser

(6 October 1878 – 26 April 1937) (Mary “May” Innes-Ker, Duchess of Roxburghe, was born Mary Goelet on 6 October 1878 in New York City, the daughter of Ogden Goelet, a wealthy New York landlord, and Mary Wilson Goelet. She had one sibling, her younger brother Robert, who later built Glenmere Mansion. Through her parents she was connected to some of the most prominent families of the Gilded Age. Ogden Goelet On her mother’s side she was related to Richard Thornton Wilson Jr. and Grace Vanderbilt. On her father’s side she was the niece of Robert Goelet and cousin to Robert Walton Goelet, and a granddaughter of Robert Goelet Sr., co-founder of the Chemical Bank of New York. As a young woman she was often mentioned in society reports. In 1897 she was rumored to be engaged to William Montagu, 9th Duke of Manchester, though he later married Helena Zimmerman. Another engagement rumor in 1898 linked her to Viscount Crichton, heir to the 4th Earl Erne, but that too came to nothing. Henry John Innes-Ker, 8th Duke of Roxburghe On 10 November 1903 she married Henry John Innes-Ker, 8th Duke of Roxburghe, son of the 7th Duke of Roxburghe and Lady Anne Spencer-Churchill, a daughter of the 7th Duke of Marlborough. This marriage linked her to the Churchill family and made her a cousin of Sir Winston Churchill and of Consuelo Vanderbilt, who married the 9th Duke of Marlborough. At the time of her marriage she was considered the wealthiest American heiress, her dowry estimated at twenty million dollars. She was one of the celebrated “Dollar Princesses” of the era, American heiresses who married into the British nobility, and her fortune was exceeded only by Consuelo Vanderbilt. The Duke and Duchess made their home at Floors Castle in Scotland. She redecorated the ancient residence with her own collection, including a series of 17th century Gobelins tapestries. She was received at court and became a guest of both King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra, and later of King George V and Queen Mary at Windsor Castle. Floors Castle After ten years of marriage she gave birth to their only child, George Innes-Ker, who was born 7 September 1913 and who later succeeded as 9th Duke of Roxburghe. In 1929 she inherited three million dollars on the death of her mother, together with the important Goelet art collection. Mary, Duchess of Roxburghe, died in London on 26 April 1937 at the age of 58. She was entombed at Kelso Abbey, Kelso, Scotland.

(May 27, 1794 - January 4, 1877) Cornelius Vanderbilt was born on May 27, 1794, on Staten Island, New York, the son of Cornelius and Phebe Hand Vanderbilt. A descendant of early Dutch settlers, he grew up working alongside his father, who operated a small boat between Staten Island and Manhattan. His formal schooling was limited, and from boyhood he devoted himself to life on the water, quickly proving himself ambitious and resourceful. Sophia Johnson Vanderbilt On December 19, 1813, he married his cousin Sophia Johnson. They became the parents of thirteen children: Phebe Jane, Ethelinda, Eliza, William Henry, Emily Almira, Maria Louisa, Frances Lavinia, Cornelius Jeremiah, George Washington, Mary Alicia, Catherine Juliette, and two who died young, Susan and Sophia. Through William Henry Vanderbilt, Cornelius became the patriarch of a dynasty that would remain one of America’s wealthiest families for generations. In 1817 he began working as a steamboat captain for Thomas Gibbons, who operated vessels between New Jersey and New York. By the late 1820s Vanderbilt had launched his own business, building and running steamships that served both passenger and freight traffic. During the California Gold Rush of the early 1850s, he created a route from New York to San Francisco by way of Nicaragua, which proved faster and less costly than competing services and added greatly to his fortune. In the 1860s he turned his attention to railroads. Consolidating numerous smaller lines, he forged them into a unified system, most notably the New York Central, which became one of the nation’s leading rail networks. His business battles with rival financiers such as Jay Gould and Jim Fisk, particularly during the Erie Railroad War, established his reputation as a determined and often ruthless competitor. Frank Armstrong Crawford Vanderbilt Sophia died in 1868, and the following year he married his cousin Frank Armstrong Crawford, a woman over forty years his junior. Frank was a devout Methodist and is believed to have influenced his decision to make his largest philanthropic gift, the $1 million endowment that established Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1873. By this time, he had largely withdrawn from day-to-day management of his business empire, spending his last years in New York overseeing his fortune and enjoying the comforts of wealth. Cornelius Vanderbilt died at his Manhattan home on January 4, 1877, at the age of eighty-two. His death was widely reported as the passing of one of America’s richest men, with an estate estimated at more than $100 million. His will was highly controversial: the vast majority of his fortune—about $95 million—was left to his son William Henry Vanderbilt, whom he considered the most capable of managing and preserving the family’s wealth. Smaller bequests were made to his other surviving children, and his widow Frank received an income and residence. The unequal distribution led to family disputes and legal challenges, though the will was ultimately upheld in court. Old Vanderbilt Tomb He was first laid to rest in the original Vanderbilt family tomb at Moravian Cemetery in New Dorp, Staten Island. In 1888, his remains, along with those of his parents, both wives, and daughter Frances, were transferred to the grand Vanderbilt Mausoleum in the Vanderbilt Cemetery, located beside Moravian Cemetery in New Dorp. His fortune and legacy placed him among the most powerful figures of the Gilded Age, and his name remains synonymous with American enterprise, ambition, and philanthropy. The Vanderbilt Mausoleum Just after Completion Above the crypt of Cornelius Vanderbilt the Carving of The Creator The Rear Half Of the Vanderbilt Mausoleum, Cornelius Vanderbilt's crypt is on the far right. Today the Vanderbilt Mausoleum is secured with Steel Doors & The Vents/Lighting domes at the top are sealed shut.