Wealthy in her own right, when she married she combined her
immense wealth with that of fur magnate William Astor (grandson of John Jacob
Astor). During the Gilded Age, there was a great
influx of new wealth from the new rich …. mining kings, industrialists,
railroad owners …. who were all trying and vying to enter the upper social
circle.
Mrs. Astor took on the job of keeping the new rich out of what she
considered her ‘proper society of old money’. The list of “Mrs. Astor’s Four
Hundred” became the blue book and the “sacred inner circle of society.” It is said the number four hundred was derived from the
capacity of her ballroom. Photo source: http://daytoninmanhattan.blogspot.com/
In 1902, she expanded the size of her ballroom to hold
1200, but in addition she decided the room would double as an art gallery to
hold her collection of 100 pieces of fine art.
In her ambition to be the society queen she not only had to
set herself up in that position but also had to “unseat” her sister-in-law,
Mrs. John Astor III. With her lavish
parties and strong ambitious personality, she succeeded in doing both.
Early in her marriage, she insisted that her husband drop his “vulgar” middle name of Backhouse as she said it made people think of outdoor toilets. She made him even stop using his middle initial. Further, she insisted on being called simply “Mrs. Astor” (much to the ire of John Astor III) even after the death of her husband, in an era when the norm for women of society would have required she print her calling card as “Mrs. John B. Astor” instead of her practice of simply printing them with the name of “Mrs. Astor.” All of this was part of her insistence on being known as the head of the Astor family.
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