Marrying Into the Upper Class in Early Twentieth Century U.S.

Historians are familiar with the attempts of the Gilded Age upper class to protect their position in society by undermining marriages outside of their class.  However, historians know much less about how some families came to accept such marriage and how some women actually moved into the upper class.

Initially, this paper will use quantitative sources to show how grooms’ economic and social power first and foremost influenced the acceptance of martial choices.  Younger men and old men had more difficulty than men at the peak of their economic power.

Mostly, however, the paper will concentrate on how some families that objected to such marriages ultimately accepted their son’s brides and even helped them join Society.  Sons who had the expected close relationship with their moral mothers cajoled them into accepting their marital choices. Often their own well-honed communication skills enabled them to maintain family support.   Brides, too, played a part in their acceptance into the upper class.  Some developed close relationships with their husbands’ mother and sisters, utilizing the social communication tasks expected of elite women.  Ultimately, this paper will demonstrates how lower-status women needed to reinvent themselves to gain acceptance and a sense of self as separate from their wealthy husbands.

Sources for this paper include qualitative and quantitative materials, such as letters amongst millionaire grooms, their families and brides, supplemented by autobiographies, as well as newspaper coverage of the rich. Quantitative data covers over 150 marriages based on U.S. censuses, marriage and travel records, etc.