Vanderbilt family
American family that rose to prominence during the Gilded Age.
Last updated
The family's high status continued only into the mid-20th century; after that, their ten large Fifth Avenue mansions were demolished and most other Vanderbilt homes were sold or converted into museums.[1]
Last updated 2026-10-01 from the source article.
Life and work
The family progenitor was Jan Aertszoon, a Dutch farmer from De Bilt, Utrecht, who emigrated to New Netherland in 1650.[2] William Henry doubled the Vanderbilt wealth and built the first grand Fifth Avenue mansion.[3] The dynasty was started by Cornelius Vanderbilt, who was the great-great-great-grandson of the original Dutch settler; he was born fourth among nine children on Staten Island to a family with limited resources.[4][5] Period records describe Anthony as tawny because his mother was Berber and came from Cartagena.[5]
At age 11, Cornelius Vanderbilt quit school and later created a vast shipping and railroad enterprise.[5] Cornelius Vanderbilt stayed a member of the Moravian Church until he died, even though many later Vanderbilts switched to the Episcopal Church.[6]
What the cited sources add
Brian A. Smith's 2013 genealogy traces the van Salee line and notes that Anthony's mother was of Berber origin.[7][5]
References
- Wikipedia, "Vanderbilt family" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Review of Fortune's Children: The Fall of the House of Vanderbilt", The New York Times, September 24, 1989; Vanderbilt, "Fortune's Children: The Fall of the House of Vanderbilt", Morrow, 1989 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Vanderbilt family" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Dorothy Kelly MacDowell. Commodore Vanderbilt and his family: a biographical account of the Descendants of Cornelius and Sophia Johnson Vanderbilt. 1989. Univer; Woodard, "American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America", Penguin, September 29, 2011 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Vanderbilt family" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Robehmed, "The Vanderbilts: How American Royalty Lost Their Crown Jewels", Forbes (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Vanderbilt family" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Nederland's Patriciaat: Lijst van geslachten opgenomen in de jaargangen 1 (1910) t/m 91 (2012)" (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Vanderbilt family" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Dubois, "Origins of the Black Atlantic", Routledge, 2013-01-11, p. 150; "The Van Salee Family", Frontline; "Jan Jansen van Haarlem and Anthony Jansen van Salee", Brian A. Smith. Washington D.C. 2013 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Vanderbilt family" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Ayres, "The Episcopalians: An American Elite With Roots Going Back To Jamestown", The New York Times, 2011-12-19; W. Williams, "Religion, Art, and Money: Episcopalians and American Culture from the Civil War to the Great Depression", The names of fashionable families who were already Episcopalian, like the Morgans, or those, like th; Gress, "Eagle's Nest: The William K. Vanderbilt II Estate", Arcadia Publishing, 2015, p. 89; Ingham, "Biographical Dictionary of American Business Leaders, Part 4", p. 1501; Kobb, "Staten Island, Volume 1 en.wikipedia.org
- "Jan Jansen van Haarlem and Anthony Jansen van Salee", Brian A. Smith. Washington D.C. 2013. facts only, no text reused. archive.org
Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Vanderbilt family (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.
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Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: Vanderbilt family (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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