Cornelia Ward and her Children

AT Reclaiming Beauty, Kidist Paulos Asrat describes an exhibit at the Museum of the City of New York about the 19th-century gilded age in New York. She writes, “What caught my attention was the confidence with which these New Yorkers ‘wore’ their wealth.” Miss Asrat exaggerates somewhat the religious awareness of these elites. I believe it is more accurate to say they unconsciously assumed the attitudes of European aristocrats but lacked the enduring social order or religious foundation that would allow these attitudes to survive. They inherited a hierarchical sensibility that was soon to be leveled by egalitarianism. Wealthy New Yorkers now wear denim and black leather. The eye can still detect their wealth of course. It is visible in their toned figures, their expensive haircuts and shoes, but it is never ornate.

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