Social History
Social History• January 8, 2020

Kate Coleman and the Diamond Horseshoe

Kate Coleman, the ladies maid at the original Metropolitan Opera House from 1888 to 1919, heard more than 20,000 hours of music (Caruso, Toscanini, and Puccini to name a few) and saw the world of society come and go...

READ MORE

RECENT POSTS

Read more

A Debutante’s Diary, Part II: 1920-1921 From Engagement to Honeymoon to First Born

Social History• January 7, 2020.
Take a trip with your imagination to another place, another time, a moment in history in someone’s life when everything was not only all right, but fabulous, in Part Il of Ellen Ordway’s photo memoir, “A Debutante’s Diary, Part II, 1920-1921." ... READ MORE
Read more

A Debutante’s Diary, Part I: 1919-1920

Palm Beach• January 7, 2020.
Returning to Ellen Glendinning Frazer Ordway, whose photo memoir began with her 1919-1920 coverage “A Debutante’s Diary, Part I” of young of Society making their debuts... READ MORE
Read more

The Last Voyage of the SS Ile de France

Social History• January 3, 2020.
Re-visiting Scott Houston McBee’s tour of the fallen SS Ile de France, launched in 1926 with a maiden voyage on June 22, 1927 from Le Havre to New York and still considered one of the most beautifully decorated ocean liners built by the French Line... READ MORE
Read more

Hetty Green: The Woman Who Loved Money

Social History• November 27, 2019.
Reviewing the amazing life of the Wicked Witch of Wall Street, Hetty Green, the woman who loved money... READ MORE
Read more

Palm Beach Social Diary: Estee Lauder’s PB era

Across the Nation• November 20, 2019.
Forever Young: Estee Lauder’s Palm Beach era Helen Boehm invited Estee out to Wellington for an afternoon at the polo matches when Helen said she told Estee: “You should sponsor a polo team; it would be good for business.” According to Helen, Estee replied, “But what if my team didn’t win.” “MAD MEN” is back... READ MORE
Read more

Resort Life: Chapter XXX, May 1966 – September 1966

Social History• September 2, 2019.
The Ritz, The Rolls & Rendezvous on the Rocks: Re-visiting Ellen Glendinning’s fabulous photo album from a Labor Day Weekend in Northeast Harbor 53 years ago in 1966... READ MORE
Read more

THE OLD FALL RIVER LINE: NIGHT BOATS FROM NEW YORK TO BOSTON

Social History• August 30, 2019.
Leaving New York for a holiday, or business, for nearly a century it was the old Fall River Line, night boats from New York to Boston could make you wish for the ticket and the ride especially today. A trip and reported by Michael Grace taking us down history’s memory lane... READ MORE
Read more

Mrs. Post’s Mar-a-Lago

Palm Beach• August 28, 2019.
A look back on the creation of Mar-a-Lago by Marjorie Meriweather Post Hutton, the biggest, most fantastic house in Palm Beach built in the heyday of the Roaring Twenties, now the property of the President of the United States, as its owner intended... READ MORE
Read more

Palm Beach Social History: High Rollers: Gambling on Palm Beach

Across the Nation• April 12, 2019.
We re-visit Augustus Mayhew’s High Rollers: Gambling on Palm Beach — a wondrous, fascinating history of another time and another world... READ MORE
Read more

The Gilded Cage: Tragedy at Palm Beach

Palm Beach• September 27, 2018.
“Men who club women and drag them by their hair,” were simply “clumsy, old-fashioned and unchic,” declared society referee Igor Cassini in his August 1949 syndicated column Cavemen in the Blue Book. Reflecting on the post-WW II era’s tolerance for domestic assault, the article’s perspective on “slaphappy lovebirds” and “the little... READ MORE
Read more

The Coconuts! A Palm Beach Party History: 1920-2018

Palm Beach• May 23, 2018.
“There is to be a Tropical Ball given by a group of young men styling themselves The Cocoanuts at the Country Club tonight …” — The Palm Beach Post, February 18, 1920, page seven. On December 31, 1991 at The Breakers Golf Club several Coconuts offered conflicting timelines when a local reporter asked them to […]... READ MORE
Read more

Higher Ground: Tall Timbers revives Livingstons’ Florida plantation

Palm Beach• April 27, 2018.
In 1958 prominent New York architect-turned-naturalist Henry L. Beadel repurposed his 2,400-acre Tall Timbers hunting plantation into an ecological preserve to conduct conservation studies on the estate’s vegetation and wildlife. Sixty years later, Tall Timbers Research Station & Land Conservancy is Florida and Georgia’s largest regional la... READ MORE

Subscribe

FOLLOW US

Popular Posts

Read more
Social DiaryAug 4
Dining outside in hot humid night in New York with a sudden storm passing through; plus the Newport Art Museum is beginning their annual summer fundraisers including an auction which will be “virtual” and very varied.
Read More...
Read more
Social DiaryJul 31
Recalling a time and a place, a man and house, another spectacular example of the imagination of a man of ambition drawn to New York.
Read More...
Read more
Social DiaryJul 29
Very very warm days of humidity, keeping close to the cool, and observing the “virtual” China Fashion Gala for the China Institute. I attended via ZOOM. You can look now via YouTube. Fabulous; fascinating.
Read More...
Read more
Social DiaryJul 24
Hot and humid in New York but the beat goes on, auctions (Marylou Whitney), food for all (City Harvest), mega shoe sale at Saks for SMSKCC, and maybe a swim if you’re anywhere hear a pool, a lake or an ocean.
Read More...
Read more
Social DiaryJul 16
A nice warm and quiet sunny day in New York; thinking about my empty appointments calendar and finding pleasure in looking back 20-25 years of New York in the SD.
Read More...