Vanderbilt family

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This article details the family of Cornelius Vanderbilt. For other uses, see Vanderbilt (disambiguation).
Vanderbilt
Ethnicity Dutch
Current region United States East Coast United Kingdom
Information
Earlier spellings van der Bilt
Place of origin De Bilt, the Netherlands
Notable members Cornelius Vanderbilt Gloria Vanderbilt Anderson Cooper
Name origin and meaning Dutch van der bilt ("from the mound") or van der Bilt ("from De Bilt)"

The Vanderbilt Family is a significant American-Anglo family with Dutch origins, who were highly prominent during the 1800s because of the family patriarch Cornelius Vanderbilt, the tenth wealthiest person in history, who created railroad and shipping empires. His descendants went on to build great Fifth Avenue mansions, Newport, Rhode Island summer cottages, and various other exclusive homes. The family members were the leaders of the high society scene and the Gilded Age, until the early 1900's, when the ten great Fifth Avenue mansions were torn down and fellow Vanderbilt homes were sold as museums and the like. The family suffered from a major downfall in prominence by the mid-1900's, known as the Fall of the House of Vanderbilt [1]. Despite the family's downfall and major loss of fortunes, the Vanderbilts remain the seventh wealthiest family in history.

John Spencer-Churchill, 11th Duke of Marlborough is descendant from the Vanderbilt from when family member Consuelo Vanderbilt married Charles Spencer-Churchill, 9th Duke of Marlborough. A current famous descendant in the family is journalist Anderson Cooper, son of Gloria Vanderbilt, granddaughter of Cornelius Vanderbilt II.

Contents

[edit] History

The prominence of the family was started by Cornelius Vanderbilt (1794–1877), the fourth of nine children born to a Staten Island family of modest means. His great-great-great-grandfather, Jan Aertszoon van der Bilt (1620–1705), was a Dutch farmer from the village of De Bilt, Utrecht in the Netherlands who emigrated to the Dutch colony of New Netherlands as an indentured servant in 1650. Jan's village name was added to the Dutch "van der" (from the) to create "van der Bilt" which was evolved to Vanderbilt when the English took control of New Amsterdam (now New York).

Cornelius Vanderbilt left school at age 11 and went on to build a shipping and railroad empire that, during the 19th century, made him one of the wealthiest men in the world.

The Vanderbilt family owned land in Corwith Township, Michigan, which was settled about 1875 . When the Vanderbilt-owned Michigan Central Railroad came through in 1880, the village of Vanderbilt, Michigan, was established. Although Cornelius Vanderbilt always occupied a modest home, members of his family would use their wealth to build magnificent mansions. Shortly before his death in 1877, Vanderbilt donated US$1 million for the establishment of Vanderbilt University in Nashville.

Members of the family dominated what has come to be known as the "Gilded Age", a period when Vanderbilt men were the merchant princes of American life through their prominence in the business world and as patrons of the arts throughout the world.

Some of Cornelius Vanderbilt's offspring gained fame as successful entrepreneurs while several achieved prominence in other fields such as Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt (1877-1915), who went down on the RMS Lusitania. His son Alfred Jr. became a noted horse breeder and racing elder. Harold Stirling Vanderbilt (1884-1970) gained fame as a sportsman, winning the most coveted prize in yacht racing, the America's Cup, on three occasions. His brother "Willie K" launched the Vanderbilt Cup for auto racing. Cornelius Vanderbilt IV (1898-1974) became an accomplished writer, newspaper publisher, and film producer. However, others made headlines as a result of drug and alcohol abuse and multiple marriages.

The Breakers, built 1892-1895 for Cornelius Vanderbilt II
The Breakers, built 1892-1895 for Cornelius Vanderbilt II

Cornelius Vanderbilt had been awarded a gold medal by the United States government during the American Civil War for donating his steamer S.S. Vanderbilt to the Union forces. Inheritance of this medal became the symbol for the titular head of the Vanderbilt family.

In 1855, Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt donated 8.5 acres (34,000 m²) of property to the Moravian Church and cemetery at New Dorp on Staten Island, New York. Later, his son William Henry Vanderbilt donated a further 4 acres (16,000 m²). A plot was kept for the Vanderbilt family in the Moravian Cemetery and several of them are buried there in the family mausoleum including the family founder. Their mausoleum was redesigned in 1885 by architect Richard Morris Hunt.

Frederick William Vanderbilt's mansion on the Hudson River
Frederick William Vanderbilt's mansion on the Hudson River

Present-day economist John Kenneth Galbraith said that several generations of Vanderbilts showed both the talent for acquiring money and the dispensing of it in unmatched volume, adding that they dispensed their wealth for frequent and unparalleled self-gratification and very often did it with downright stupidity. Confirmation as to the validity of Galbraith's views is that only forty-eight years after the death of Cornelius Vanderbilt, one of his direct descendants died penniless. Within seventy years of his passing, the last of the ten great Vanderbilt Fifth Avenue mansions in New York City had been torn down. In 1973, the first Vanderbilt family reunion took place at Vanderbilt University.

The family's modern legacy includes Vanderbilt University as well as Vanderbilt Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, which runs alongside Grand Central Terminal, the New York City rail hub built by the Vanderbilt family.

Fortune's Children: The Fall of the House of Vanderbilt written by distant cousin Arthur T. Vanderbilt II, was published in 1989.

[edit] Family connection (listed by ancestry/generation)

          • Nicolas Harvey Vanderbilt (1958–1984)
          • Victoria Emerson Vanderbilt (1959–)
            • Caitlin Ginn Weiss (1983–)
            • Sasha Virginia Weiss (1985–)
          • Michael Dagget Vanderbilt (1967–)
          • Thomas Percy Cornelius Vanderbilt (1971–)
        • George Washington Vanderbilt III (1914–1961)
      • Reginald Claypoole Vanderbilt (1880–1925)
        • Cathleen Vanderbilt (1904–1944)
          • Harry Cushing IV
            • Harry Cushing V
      • Robert Thomas Vanderbilt (1948-)
      • Catherine Rivas-Callaway Vanderbilt (1952-)
  • Mark Taylor Vanderbilt (1987-)
  • Matthew Calin Vanderbilt (1987-)

[edit] Family connection (alphabetical listing)

The following list includes etiquette guru Amy Vanderbilt although it is believed she descended from either an uncle or brother of Cornelius Vanderbilt and is therefore not an official descendant-member of this family. The list also includes Josiah Hornblower (1975) [1], a distant cousin of the Vanderbilt and Whitney family who was feautured in the 2003 documentary Born Rich.

[edit] By birth

[edit] In fiction

In the fictional universe of Star Trek, the Vanderbilt family continues to thrive at least until the 22nd century, as a Thomas Vanderbilt is said to have been the first President of the United Federation of Planets. (seen in the family photo album of Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek: Generations)

[edit] References

  1. ^ http://www.vanderbiltbooks.com/fortune.htm
  2. ^ "Leaders of Society Expected at Lenox; Great Preparations Made for Field-Sloane Wedding -- Social Functions of the Week," Special to The New York Times, July 6, 1902, Magazine Section, p. 28

[edit] References

  • Vanderbilt, Arthur T., II (1989). Fortune's Children: The Fall of the House of Vanderbilt. New York: Morrow. ISBN 0688072798. 

[edit] See also

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