Skip Moskey speaking at the American Library in Paris, October 2016 Skip Moskey is an independent scholar who researches and writes about notable Americans of the long 19th-century who were connected to the history of art, architecture, or politics in Washington, D.C. His subjects have included Isabel and Larz Anderson, Mary Scott Townsend, Elizabeth Kilgour […]
A compendium of short, illustrated essays about the people, buildings, gardens, art, books and more that define the long 19th-century in the U.S.
Biography | The Gilded Age in America | Page 13
The following materials supplement my lecture “Discovering President Wilson’s Voyage to France, 1918” given at The President Woodrow Wilson House in Washington, D.C. on April 23, 2019. President Woodrow Wilson Enroute to Paris, December 4-15, 1918 The Reception of President Woodrow Wilson on his Arrival in Paris, December 16, 1918 God Be With You Till […]
Pullman Carriage of Japan ( 人力車 ) | The Gilded Age in America
In 1913, Larz wrote in his diary: I have ordered a jinrikisha (one of the two-wheeled man-pulled carriages – often called the Pullman carriage of Japan) for Isabel, as it is much more fun traveling in them than in any other kind of vehicle, for one sees everything that is going on and doesn’t go too fast, and […]
The History of a Book | The Gilded Age in America
My copy of Presidents and Pies, by Isabel Anderson (1920) While I was writing my biography of Larz and Isabel Anderson, I discovered hundreds of “rabbit holes” that, had I decided to go down into, could have added years to the time it took to write it. (Rabbit holes have been described by one New Yorker writer as something […]
Some of my favorite Gilded Age biographies | The Gilded Age in America
By Skip Moskey People often ask me what books I’ve most enjoyed reading about the Gilded Age. Here are three favorites from my biography shelf. Click on the book image for more information; these are all available as very low-cost used copies on Amazon.com. Happy reading! Henry James: A Life, by Leon Edel. This […]
Picturing a Bygone Era | The Gilded Age in America
Larz and Isabel Anderson: Wealth and Celebrity in the Gilded Age by Stephen T. (Skip) Moskey has been in development since January 2010. Now, after almost six years of research, writing, and editing, the book is with its publisher, iUniverse LLC of Bloomington, Indiana. You can view a short book trailer by Clicking Here. One of the key […]
Gardens & Horticulture | The Gilded Age in America | Page 5
Larz and Isabel Anderson were an elegant Gilded Age couple with two impressive homes: Anderson House in Washington, D.C., and Weld, their summer estate in Brookline, just outside of Boston, Mass. Weld was more than a fascinating Gilded Age mansion filled with treasures from around the world, however. It was also a working “gentleman’s farm” […]
Travel & Entertainment | The Gilded Age in America | Page 4
A Tudor Revival house, probably circa 1910, with a river stone ground floor exterior, on South Highland Street in West Hartford, Conn. I grew up in a small Cape Cod across the street from this house. By Skip Moskey I grew up in West Hartford, Connecticut, during the 1960s. We lived in an area of […]
skipmoskey | The Gilded Age in America | Page 4
By Skip Moskey Ambassador and Mrs. Larz Anderson, 1924, by Philip de László. The Andersons were among Washington’s most glamorous couples. Everything about them was glamorous: their homes, their clothing, their art, and their style. (Photo by Skip Moskey.) In Part 1 of this two-part series, I reviewed the relationship between the architectural form and […]
Educating Competent, Responsible and Generous-minded Women in 1895 | The Gilded Age in America
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, […]
A Visit with the Pope | The Gilded Age in America
In the fall of 1898, a year and a half after their marriage, Larz and Isabel Anderson took a trip of several months to India by way of Europe and the Suez Canal. Along the way, they stopped to visit old friends in Rome, where Larz had served as first secretary of the American Embassy […]
France
The former residence of U.S. minister to France, Whitelaw Reid (35, avenue Hoche, Paris; photo 2013) In the fall of 1891, during the first months of his first diplomatic assignment as second secretary of the American legation in London, Larz Anderson took a short vacation in Paris. His boss, the U.S. minister to the Court of […]
The Gilded Age in America | An eclectic compendium of short, illustrated essays about the celebrities, buildings, gardens, art, books and more that help define America's Gilded Age. | Page 4
By Skip Moskey Ambassador and Mrs. Larz Anderson, 1924, by Philip de László. The Andersons were among Washington’s most glamorous couples. Everything about them was glamorous: their homes, their clothing, their art, and their style. (Photo by Skip Moskey.) In Part 1 of this two-part series, I reviewed the relationship between the architectural form and […]
In Grandfather’s Garden | The Gilded Age in America
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 […]