In our second podcast episode, we investigate the downstairs spaces of the Gilded Age. Who were the people who were hired as the servants in the breathtakingly large homes built by the ruling elite? What was life like as a servant to New York City’s wealthy families?
Play our episode now, ad-free! (More information about the show below).
About The Gilded Age Episode “Money isn’t Everything”
Tom Raikes, the lawyer who helped Marian settle her father’s estate in Pennsylvania, has moved to New York City. He is clearly interested in Marian, but Marian’s Aunt Agnes tells her to be wary of the man.
Aspiring writer Peggy has sent query letters to publishers without receiving any replies.
Town Alderman Patrick Morris and his wife are invited to dinner at the Russells’ at George’s request, though they lob barely-concealed insults towards Bertha during their visit.
George makes a deal with Mr. Morris, in which Morris and other Aldermen will buy George’s company stock then pass a law allowing George to build a new train station in the city, resulting in wins for everyone.
Socially ambitious Bertha, still keen to break the ice in New York society, lets Mrs. Morris know that she and Mrs. Fane could use her ballroom for their upcoming charity bazaar. However, they ignore Bertha’s offer and decide to hold it in a hotel instead.
Bertha, George and their children attend the bazaar. George scolds Mrs. Morris and Mrs. Fane for snubbing his wife. He makes a mockery of the bazaar and buys everything for sale, immediately ending the event. The episode ends with Mrs. Astor nonchalantly returning home, noting to her daughter Carrie that yesterday she would have said that Mr. Russell was a nobody, but she acknowledges he’s a force to be reckoned with.
What Inspired this Podcast Episode?
It’s fun to imagine ourselves as one of the elites in this time period, wearing gorgeous clothes and living in fabulous mansions, but the reality is that many people worked as the staff to keep the glamorous Gilded Age homes operational and comfortable for the families that lived in them.
We look into the various jobs that male and female staff held “below the stairs”, such as the roles of ladies’ maid, valet, butler, head housekeeper, and the most dreaded job… the scullery maid. We also talked about how much they actually got paid (and what that means in today’s dollars). This gives new perspective on exactly how little most domestic workers – who were often immigrants – were paid during the era, versus the vast fortunes that just a small handful of their employers, the elites, were spending.
This starts to shed some light on the vast wealth disparity of the era. Although it’s a time remembered for prosperity, the wealth was certainly concentrated in the hands of just a few.
Sources Consulted
Ephemeral New York, “All the servants of a rich Gilded Age household”
Mary Elizabeth Carter, Millionaire Households and Their Domestic Economy from 1903
Driehaus Museum, Below America’s Stairs: Domestic Service in the Gilded Age
Historian Ruth Goodman, including her Victorian Pharmacy and Edwardian Farm series & her many other bodies of work about the daily life of Victorians and Edwardians
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