Social History
Social History• February 7, 2017

Mrs. Post’s Mar-a-Lago

Marjorie Merriweather Post liked to live large. Really large. The world knew the size of her fortune, the length of her yacht and the speed of her Vickers Viscount turboprop jet with a Rolls-Royce engine. ...

READ MORE
Read more

America First: Howard Major at Palm Beach

Social History• January 12, 2017.
America First: Howard Major at Palm Beach Architect Howard Major was Palm Beach’s leading advocate for an American-based classical building style during the post-WW I boom when Spanish and Italian reproductions became commonplace. Foreshadowing today’s “America First” populist sentiment, Major believed a mix of Old World styles should never... READ MORE
Read more

Aristocratic Artist: Albert Herter at Palm Beach

Social History• August 23, 2016.
Aristocratic Artist: Albert Herter at Palm Beach “Well, Albert Herter simply has no right to exist. To begin with, he was born to wealth and social position; he is handsome and attractive in manner, and he has exceptional talent. You see, his career knocks the props from under those accepted saws about the impetus of […]... READ MORE
Read more

Otto Kahn’s Palm Beach

Social History• February 27, 2015.
At Palm Beach, where most everyone was a somebody at some time somewhere for something, prominent Jewish personalities are not customarily included in the telling of the resort’s history. By recounting their lives, it enriches our appreciation for the complex social order that once existed when notables like Otto Kahn made Palm Beach their re... READ MORE
Read more

Palm Beach – 1937

Social History• March 17, 2013.
“Happy bedlam” wrote social columnist Nancy Randolph in describing the 1937 Palm Beach season at the same time pointing out to her Palm Beach Daily News readers of the prevailing conservative undercurrent: “The trouble is this colony remembers the resort’s supreme Silliest Seasons of 1928 and 1929 when the stratosphere was the limit and... READ MORE
Read more

Palm Beach Social History

Social History• January 3, 2013.
Our Palm Beach members want quick action and thrills, roulette and hazard. Card games are not thrilling.” –The Beach Club, Palm Beach, 1913. “ … Go to Palm Beach, which is not exclusive, but merry, sumptuous and expensive and where there is a chance to meet many prominent men in the gambling rooms …” –Advice […]... READ MORE
Read more

Part XV: Resort Life, 1959-1961

Social History• March 28, 2012.
Part XV: Resort Life, 1959-1961 Cannes – Greenwich – Locust Valley – Newport For a look at Ellen Glendinning Ordway‘s life from 1959 until 1961, I perused more than 4,000 photographs housed within nine volumes belonging to Ordway’s granddaughter Gayle Abrams, whose collection comprises 95 photograph albums. For this thre... READ MORE
Read more

Part XIV: The Social Pyramid, 1951-1958

Social History• March 12, 2012.
Part XIV: The Social Pyramid, 1951-1958 Palm Beach – Around the World –- Ireland – Scotland – Long Island Since Ellen Frazer and Lou Ordway already shared much the same social orbit, both as comfortable within the realm of private clubs as they were having their names mentioned in New York newspaper columns, you might think marriage wou... READ MORE
Read more

Part XIII: A Whirlwind Romance

Social History• February 15, 2012.
Part XIII: A Whirlwind Romance and A Walk Down the Aisle January 1950-March 1951: Medway Plantation, Palm Beach, Paris, Hanover, Normandy, St. Tropez, Dublin, & Chestnut Hill Ellen Glendinning Frazer and Lucius P. Ordway traveled together from South Carolina to the South of France, from Palm Beach to the beaches at Normandy, amid unspoiled l... READ MORE
Read more

Part XII of Ellen Glendinning Frazer’s archives

Social History• January 31, 2012.
Part XII: Winter Sun, Cold War Romance, Away Down East, & A Big Catch on the River of the Presidents, 1949 Palm Beach – Medway Plantation – Northeast Harbor – Cedar Island Lodge In 1949 Ellen Glendinning Frazer’s life made for a complex collection of scenes from Villa Tranquilla’s social swim, Medway Plantation’s out-of-... READ MORE
Read more

Part XI: Transitions, Departures, & Getaways, 1948

Social History• January 23, 2012.
Part XI: Transitions, Departures, & Getaways, 1948 Palm Beach – Gulf Stream – Jamaica – Medway Plantation – Chestnut Hill – The Greenbrier From the almost 1,000 photographs Ellen Glendinning Frazer took in 1948, I selected less than 100 images from her archive and placed them into a chronological montage.  With the nation preoc... READ MORE
Read more

Part X: “A window still waiting to fall …”

Social History• January 12, 2012.
Part X: “A window still waiting to fall …” March 1947-December 1947 France – Copenhagen – Radnor Hunt Club – Long Island – Jersey Shore – Chestnut Hill In this chapter’s opening images Ellen Glendinning Frazer returns to Paris for the first time in more than a decade and finds her American friends who survived the wa... READ MORE
Read more

The polish, paradox, and paradise of Palm Beach

Social History• January 6, 2012.
Happy New Year! With results of the presidential Iowa caucus soon to be known and the outcome of the Town of Palm Beach’s caucus on Tuesday night a near certainty, given the three incumbent councilmen are unopposed, it should be reassuring to know Palm Beach and Dubuque have something in common. Nonetheless, anytime Palm Beach […]... READ MORE

FOLLOW US