Christmas traditions evolved over the 19th century, combining influences from the days of the Dutch settlers with British practices inspired by the work of Dickens, and along the way, they became something truly American.  In this special holiday episode,  the Gilded Gentleman visits with Ann Haddad, House Historian of New York's 1832 Merchant's House Museum, and takes a look at how the well-to-do Tredwell family and their servants would have celebrated the holiday around mid-century.  

We then travel outside the city up to the Hudson Valley for a visit with Maria Reynolds, curator of the Mills Mansion in Staatsburgh, New York,  a grand Stanford White designed country house right out of the Gilded Age. For the Mills family, the holidays of 1899 and 1900 in the country included many outdoor winter activities, including sledding and skating and even, with a great greenhouse on the estate, some special items served on holiday tables.  And through some unique archival material, we'll even get a sense of just who may have come to visit for a holiday dinner. 

Financier Jay Gould was one of the most famous — and infamous — of the Gilded Age robber barons. He was ruthless in his business dealings, tangled with the Vanderbilts for control of the railroads and fought battle after battle on Wall Street. 

But there was a less contentious side to him as well. Gould sought respite from New York City with his family at his country home, Lyndhurst Mansion in Tarrytown, a rolling estate where instead of Wall St. warrior he could be father and husband. 

Lyndhurst may be familiar to viewers of the HBO series The Gilded Age since a number of its rooms served as filming locations in the show.  The mansion and estate are owned and managed by the National Trust for Historic Preservation and visitors are welcomed year-round. 

In this unique episode, The Gilded Gentleman travels to Lyndhurst for a look inside both the Mansion and the life of Jay Gould. Howard Zar, executive director of Lyndhurst, joins Carl for a fascinating interview recorded in the picture gallery in Jay Gould's own mansion. 

Surrounded by Gould's precious hand-chosen art collection (still hung as Gould intended), Howard and Carl delve into what life was like at the Mansion and what visitors can see today. 

As a special treat, follow along with Howard and Carl on a tour through the Mansion visiting Gould's reception room, library, private office and dining room. 

The Gilded Age was a period of rapid industrialization and innovation - and that was abundantly true in terms of what was happening in the kitchen.  New marvels like refrigeration, the availability of ingredients like baking powder, and new tools from egg beaters to meat slicers, all made creating over-the-top meals much easier than ever before.  

Becky Libourel Diamond, food historian and author of the just published Gilded Age Cookbook, shares some rich insights into a number of these kitchen innovations, along with stories of recipes and dishes that defined grand Gilded Age dining.  

In this season of holiday entertaining, Becky even shares some ideas from her book on how to create your own Gilded Age-inspired holiday dinner. 

One of the most fascinating story lines in Season One of the HBO series "The Gilded Age" was that of the young black writer Peggy Scott and her Brooklyn family.  Elements of Peggy's father's character were based on scholar Dr. Carla Peterson's own ancestral family.   

In her groundbreaking book, Black Gotham: A Family History of African-Americans in Nineteenth Century New York City, Dr. Peterson sheds light on how this community grew, how diverse the community actually was, and she provides insight into leading figures and their contributions often missing in standard accounts of the period.   

In this episode Dr. Peterson discusses the path of her own research, which ultimately revealed a richer, deeper sense of community and identity than many realized. 

Celebrate the opening of the opera season Gilded Age style!  In this encore episode, Carl delves into how the Metropolitan Opera came to be and what it meant to those bejewelled Gilded Age audiences.  Most of the drama took place in the audience - and not so much on the stage. 

On the night of October 22, 1883, the brand new Metropolitan Opera House opened its doors.  The new theater was able to accommodate many more prime seats than the old Academy of Music, and as a result, "new money" socialites like Alva Vanderbuilt could finally get their dream - a private box at the opera.  

But most of these opera goers weren't there for the music. They were there to jockey for social position, play the game of "see and be seen" and hopefully get one's daughter married off to an appropriate fortune.  

This episode goes in to the drama -- on stage and off -- that accompanied that first opera season at the net Met - so put on your favorite gown from Paris, don your top hat and cane and join The Gilded Gentleman for a Gilded Age night at the opera. 

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In this truly spooky episode. Greg and Tom from the Bowery Boys podcast travel to Manhattan, Queens, the Bronx and Staten Island to delve into four tales of the unexplained, the perhaps unforgotten and definitely the unsettling.  

Our stories include a massive elegant mansion that once graced the Hunts Point neighborhood in the Bronx. Built by merchant and trader Benjamin Whitlock in 1850 and later owned by Cuban sugar importer Inocencio Casanova, the mansion is the site of numerous unexplained mysteries including an extensive system of vaults and secret rooms hidden well beneath the mansion's main floors. 

A stop on Manhattan's East 27th Street (near the Gilded Age's fashionable Madison Square) uncovers reports of a curious and very active poltergeist and a trip out to Queens explores two mysterious deaths at the location of a remote farmhouse, the site now part of Calvary Cemetery.  

Greg and Tom conclude their visits with a few of the ghosts of the Gilded Age with a stop at the Vanderbilt Mausoleum in Staten Island, the final resting place of Cornelius Vanderbilt as well as his son William H. Vanderbilt and grandson, Cornelius Vanderbilt II.  

And as with any visit with the Vanderbilts, one discovers a few secrets that may lurk beneath the surface. 

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John Jacob Astor is considered to have been New York's first great real estate mogul, and indeed the Astor family has been said to have been "New York's landlords" for much of the 19th century.  

But other developers and builders were responsible for establishing desirable areas in which to build as well.  

In this episode guest historian Keith Taillon takes a look at five particular properties and mansions  - all except for one can still be found today.  With locations as diverse as today's midtown Manhattan to the Upper West Side and up into Harlem, Keith weaves the tales of how each area became fashionable, how desirability rose and fell,  what styles of architecture prevailed, and just who some of the owners were.  

Our journey will include the homes of JP Morgan Jr and Andrew Carnegie as well as other lesser well-known Gilded Age luminaries such as Robert Davis and James Bailey, all with equally intriguing and drama filled stories to tell. 

If you liked this show, listen to Carl and Keith's last podcast together -- Chasing the Gold: A Gilded Age Tour Up Manhattan

Join Carl and historian and professional musician Dr. Christopher Brellochs for a tour through the musical influences of the Gilded Age. 

Music in the Gilded Age incorporated many different styles and influences from the classical symphonies and operas brought to American concert halls and stages from Europe to more home grown music that included military influenced music as well as music that reflected the fusion of cultural influences like ragtime.   

Dr. Brellochs shares insight into just what Gilded Age audiences were tapping their feet to and where they were going to hear music from the brand new Carnegie Hall in 1891 to the opening of the Metropolitan Opera in 1883.   

This episode covers some American composers that you might not know including John Knowles Paine who was tremendously influential in the Gilded Age and nearly forgotten today.  And just to give some special perspective Dr. Brellochs played the role of John Knowles Paine in an episode of HBO's first season of "The Gilded Age".   

We also discuss the popularization of a new instrument - the saxophone - which Dr. Brellochs has called a Gilded Age "coming of age story".  

In the latter part of 19th-century America, over 200 young women married into British and European noble families.  Some Gilded Age families wanted their daughters to gain titles to secure their social standing, and many willing aristocrats needed the significant marriage settlements to repair crumbling estates and fill up their bank accounts.  From the marriage in 1874 of Jenny Jerome to Lord Randolph Churchill, many mothers and daughters went in search of eligible nobles to marry. 

This episode looks into the marriage of Jenny Jerome, mother of Winston Churchill, as well as perhaps the most famous aristocratic match - Consuelo Vanderbilt's marriage to Charles Spencer-Churchill, the 9th Duke of Marlborough, in 1895, to see what motivated these matches and what they were like in reality.  

Venice by the end of the 19th century had lost much of the glory it once had known. Crumbling palazzi, a bad economy and an overall sense of decay permeated the city. 

New writings published on the long-forgotten Venetian Renaissance painters and artists brought a new stream of visitors to the city including Henry James, John Singer Sargent and James McNeill Whistler among others. American expatriate art connoisseurs such as Daniel and Ariana Curtis and the great Isabella Stewart Gardner all made Venice home for a time. 

Much of the activity centered around the majestic Palazzo Barbaro on the Grand Canal which the Curtises bought, becoming the scene of much entertaining and socializing among artists. 

This episode takes a look at what the city meant to James on his many visits since his first in 1869 to his last in 1907. In addition, the show considers what it meant to other artists and how they interpreted it amidst a fascinating, eccentric, educated community of people flowing into the city. 

We will also take a look at the two great works in which James captured the city and this community, The Aspern Papers (1888) and The Wings of the Dove (1902).  

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