Social History

Social History• January 14, 2013

A Temple for the Arts: Summer Society in Bar Harbor

Summer Society needs its amusements, and Gilded Age Bar Harbor was no exception. Golf came first, as it often does. With the founding of the Kebo Valley Club in 1888, Bar Harbor was in the vanguard of the newly popular sport in America. The new club, with six holes designed by H.C. Leeds, was stated to be […]...

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Palm Beach Social History

Palm Beach• 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

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Palm Beach Social Diary – Title Search: Reflections on Palm Beach Proper

Social History• April 19, 2012.

Several months after Dame Celia Lipton Farris died last year, I contacted a family member to ask if I could snap some photos of her stately South End house to illustrate a chronicle of this unique property’s architectural and social history. For whatever reason, my request did not fit in with Farris family priorities. Almost a year […]... READ MORE

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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

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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

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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

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Edith Wharton at 150

Social History• February 3, 2012.

Several things I intended to do in the last few days have slipped past me — although seemingly fully conscious and alert, I forgot to go to a lunch that I was looking forward to — I have been forgiven, but feel like a cur — and I forgot to post this little bit about Edith […]... READ MORE

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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

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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

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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

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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

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Part IX: After the War, January 1946 – March 1947

Social History• January 6, 2012.

Part IX: After the War, January 1946 – March 1947 Palm Beach – Mackay Point Plantation – Bermuda – Aboard the SS America For this series of images documenting Ellen Glendinning Frazer’s life following WW II, I have made selections from photographs depicting her return to Palm Beach at Felix and Ann du Pont’s Villa Tranquilla, a ... READ MORE

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Part VIII: Social Rites during World War II, 1942-1945

Social History• December 19, 2011.

For this next installment of Ellen Glendinning Frazer’s photographic chronicle, I selected images from more than ten volumes containing several thousand photographs from 1942 to 1945 and arranged them within two separate topical headings: Social Rites: War and Weddings and At Ease: Chestnut Hill, Watch Hill, Mackay Point Plantation, Long I... READ MORE

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