New Money during the Gilded Age
During industrialization, many people who had become wealthy through their investments in the economic sector, for example, factory work or the railroad business, moved to the cities. In these families, where the men often took care of business matters, the women frequently tried to make a name for themselves in high society and become part of the social upper class. If there was one thing other than work that New York’s elite 400 hated, it was the nouveau riche, who wanted to buy their way into high society, without family name, status, titles, or any sense of class, education, or taste. THE gossip magazine of its time, Town Topics, naturally did its best to ridicule the nouveau riche class. The terms “nouveau riche,” “social climber,” and “parvenu” have been repeatedly mentioned in Town Topics in connection with snappy comments and jokes on behalf of the nouveau riche. Let’s look at these very comments and jokes.
Sit back and enjoy the mudslinging.
By Franziska Schnitzler
The Social Calendar
The idea of this project is to illustrate how the wealthiest of New York City’s elites mingled with each other. For the purposes of this, I have examined a time frame of ten years between 1890 and 1900 and created a representative calendar. The contents of the calendar are formatted in a way that attempts to capture the nature of Town Topics itself.
As the idea of social seasons is innately connected to debutante culture and the “business” of marriage, a brief section about this can also be found on this page. The central focus will be on the social events themselves and what might be important to know for a potential attendee.
The texts of this project are very consciously phrased to emulate the character of publications like Town Topics to give readers a glimpse into contemporary conduct literature and perhaps imagine themselves as a 19th century socialite for just a brief moment.
All content for educational purposes only.
University of Greifswald
Seminar: Editing Scandal
(Summer Semester 2025)
Instructor: Prof. Dr. Katrin Horn