12 Most POWERFUL FAMILIES of the GILDED AGE

The Gilded Age, an age of robber barons, industrialization, and extravagant wealth. Throughout this prosperous era of the late 1800s, we witnessed the rising of an extremely rich class of families coming into money, as well as those who’d had it for generations. Together these families are known to have played an influential role in defining the Gilded Age, as they took center stage in industry, society, and all the fanfare.

Today, we are taking you back to the Gilded Age so you can meet the big names, the families, and the individuals who helped shape this fascinating era. These are the captains of industry, the ladies and gents of high society, and those whose contributions continue to make an impact in today’s modern world.

So without further ado, here are the 12 most powerful families of the Gilded Age.

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12 Most POWERFUL FAMILIES of the GILDED AGE

[franklesser]

Carnegie was an amazing philanthropist. just about every library in the U.S. was funded by him, not counting the schools and universities he funded.

[ballalex]

A relevant fact about the Astor family, perhaps not important for the sake of this video but still interesting, is that John Jacob Astor IV, son and heir of William Astor, perished in the sinking of the RMS Titanic in 1912, being the wealthiest person aboard the ship.

[smokenjoe]

3:07 I worked at the Rockefeller mansion on the Hudson River for few years as a construction consultant. I've crawled thru the attics, tunnels and spent many hours in the barn with the car collection. I love the bat cave most of all

[peterlbaldwin]

I am intrigued toknow of the position within "The Guilded Age" if any of "The Guggenheim" family.. Guggenheim along with John Jacob Astor were on board "Titanic", neither surviving that fatal collision...

[jackielaurin]

wonderful insight to the magical force of dedication to earn wealth and keep it within a society of same minded thinkers of the day..fun to read & listen to, thank you for your insight..I think Canegie was a real leader in philantropy. It was to better the common man wanting to learn..

[PeterCombs]

and today the Hearst family is STILL worth around 20 Billion in today's, money...more than any of the others mentioned, and bringing up second place is the Dupont family...at around 15 Billion.

[DonnaRhodesletstakeupmakeup]

Loved your video.. I've always been fascinated by the Vanderbilts and Biltmore house which is truly spectacular

[jonnarobinson]

I am fascinated by the Gilded Age and I have heard of all of these families. The only one I question is the Hearsts. I think of William Randolph Hearst as being more around the turn of the century and later, not from the 1870's - 1900. However, I think your video was wonderful!!

[Bjk]

I love this! Very interesting. Fortunately I have been to the Biltmore estate in Asheville, North Carolina many times and love it so much I guess we all wish that we had been a part of these wealthy families.😂

[khher]

Hold up, Timothy Oliphant is a Vanderbilt?!??! I knew about Cooper Anderson but not Oliphant

[peterbroderson]

The majority of these families, through trusts and tax shelters, are still powerful and have influence over our economy and government!

[madisondean]

Out of all these families in this video I only recognized 5 of them. Particularly the Astors and the Roosevelts.

[MadinaVadache]

Carnegie is my fav we need more humans like him

[haroldrupert]

Thanks for sharing this most interesting documentary.❤

[charlesvanderhoog]

For wealth comparisons with today's US dollars, one could multiply the numbers by about 1000. The VanderBilt fortune of US$108 million would equal roughly US$100 billion today.

[stephanebelizaire]

Cheers and Vivat for these Pioneers and Builders of a Powerful Nation !

[DowntownChris]

Good work. I watch all of the Guilded Age content and you all have something interesting and unique about them that makes your channels so interesting. One of the biggest takeaways (aside from your amusing slam on the Vanderbilt heirs (crappy news stations/singing and dancing for their supper) was how good looking the Roosevelts were. What a handsome family. The others were so unattractive, their fur coats and jewels notwithstanding.

[cynthiaalver]

I read a fascinating book about Mrs Astor. The one thing that stuck with me the most was, if a person accepted an invitation to Mrs Astor's home, be it for tea, dinner a ball or whatever, there was NO excuse for cancelling and that included death. Not just a family member but YOU YOURSELF. If a death happened the poor unfortunate corpse's family better find an ACCEPTABLE replacement because if you upset Mrs Astor's dinner count, your entire family would immediately fall to the bottom of the social ladder and that meant expulsion from all other society families until you moved back into Mrs Astor's good graces. Yikes!

[garycombs]

Alva and Alice Vanderbilt gave to us the single greatest lesson to be learned from the gilded age—rich men must be very careful not to marry wrongly.

[Nigelsmom]

Love their definition of summer cottages.