History

Larz Anderson was a collector of many things, including several dozen fine old motor cars  – from an 1899 Winton Phaeton that he named ‘Pioneer’ (motto: It Will Go!) to a 1926 Lincoln Seven Limousine, ‘The Emancipator’ (motto: Son Courage Fait sa Force/His Courage is his Might).  Larz was, however, as avid a collector of horse-drawn carriages as he […]

One hundred and twenty years ago this month, in June 1895, Isabel Weld Perkins graduated from Miss Winsor’s School in Boston, now called The Winsor School.  She was in the school’s first graduating class of young Boston women prepared by Mary Pickard Winsor for a life in society and the world at large. During the earliest years, […]

Larz Kilgour Anderson was born 149 years ago today, on August 15th, 1866, in his parents’ apartment at what is now No. 38 rue Marbeuf in the 8th arrondissement of Paris, just off of the Champs Élysées.  Nick and Elizabeth Anderson were on their year-long wedding trip through Europe when Larz was conceived.  They decided to stay in Europe […]

By Skip Moskey Larz Anderson in 1911. Press photo taken at the time of his first diplomatic assignment under President Taft. By Skip Moskey From early November 1911 until the early fall of 1912, Larz Anderson served as American minister plenipotentiary to the Kingdom of Belgium. He and his wife Isabel, who was the official […]

Readers of my book, Larz and Isabel Anderson: Wealth and Celebrity in the Gilded Age, often ask me where they can view more photography of “Weld,” the Anderson’s summer home in Brookline, Massachusetts.  The mansion was torn down in 1955 and then, until the publication of my book in 2016, largely forgotten.  The book has sparked a […]

This post was originally published in 2016. Please scroll to the bottom of this page for updated information about the emeralds Isabel is wearing in this photograph. Isabel Weld Perkins was born on March 29, 1876, during the year of the American Centennial. To celebrate her 2016 birthday in a special way, her biographer, Skip Moskey, […]

by Skip Moskey Pierre Lorillard’s houseboat “Caiman”, pictured here in a watercolor published in 1893 in The Illustrated American. (Source: Google Books.) We often associate yachts and steamships with Gilded Age vacations and recreation, but did you know that houseboats were also once the “in” thing for wealthy boaters like Pierre Lorillard, Alfred Gwynn Vanderbilt, […]

After Larz Anderson’s death in 1937, Isabel Anderson started finding new ways to socialize and entertain herself on a much smaller and simpler scale than she had when her husband was alive. Giving large parties, wearing fancy clothes, hobnobbing with high society, and traveling to the four corners of the earth had been Larz’s lifestyle, not hers. After her […]

One of the Gilded Age’s most celebrated personalities was Isabella Stewart Gardner, known affectionately during her lifetime by friends and strangers alike as “Mrs. Jack.”  Isabella and her husband John L. “Jack” Gardner make several appearances in the new biography, Larz and Isabel Anderson: Wealth and Celebrity in the Gilded Age. The connections between the Gardner and […]

On Easter Monday, March 28, 1910, Larz and Isabel Anderson attended a field day for children at Randle Highlands in the District of Columbia. Known now as Washington Highlands, the area was first developed by Col. Arthur E. Randle (1859-1829), a prominent Washingtonian. The children of Randle Highlands petitioned Isabel to attend their festivities and help give […]

By Skip Moskey Terrace Garden, Rome by John Elliott. ca. 1897. Oil on canvas. Private Collection. On January 31st, 1896, Larz Anderson, then serving as first secretary of the American Embassy in Rome, wrote to his mother that he had dined the night before at the home of Maud and John Elliott.  There were two other […]

Though Larz Anderson never knew his great-grandfather, the Cincinnati wine merchant Nicholas Longworth (1783-1863), he was very familiar with his imposing mansion in downtown Cincinnati. Longworth’s Greek Revival mansion and famous formal garden distinguished it from all other properties in the city. Larz visited the property often. His grandparents, Larz and Catherine Longworth Anderson, lived […]

On Easter Monday, March 28, 1910, Larz and Isabel Anderson attended a field day for children at Randle Highlands in the District of Columbia. Known now as Washington Highlands, the area was first developed by Col. Arthur E. Randle (1859-1829), a prominent Washingtonian. The children of Randle Highlands petitioned Isabel to attend their festivities and help give […]