This is the fourth, and final, installment in our series of articles about Anderson Cooper's family tree. Today we learn more about Getrude Vanderbilt Whitney and her neice Gloria, Anderson's mother.
We are ever grateful to Viewer in Virginia for her research and writing and to Em for the puzzle. And speaking of Ms. Em she will return from her European vacation this week and be back with you all next Sunday. ~Phebe
Cornelius Vanderbilt II also had two daughters besides the four boys we mentiuoned in last week's installment. Gertrude (b. 1875) was born in the middle of them, and strived to prove herself equal to them in all ways. All accounts of her unanimously claim that her position in the birth order made her individualistic and strong minded.
Despite her tomboyishness, she fell in love and married Harry Payne Whitney, and bore him three children. Harry was from a wealthy family as well, and between them they were able to live in the style Gertrude was accustomed to.
In 1901, while they were in France, Gertrude rediscovered her passion for art and began to study seriously when they returned to New York. Sculpture was her particular interest, and she went back to Paris to study with Auguste Rodin.
Once her studies were completed, she opened a studio in the bohemian neighborhood of Greenwich Village. She encouraged and supported young American artists, opened a gallery, and collected upcoming artists' works. She actually offered her collection to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, but was turned down. So she and her husband decided that American art was important enough to open a museum featuring contemporary artists. Thus the Whitney Museum of American Art was born. Gertrude was a sculptor of ability and has pieces on display around the country.
Gertrude had all the Vanderbilt money, power and influence behind her when she decided that her 10 year old niece, Gloria Laura Vanderbilt, daughter of her younger brother, Reginald, was not being cared for properly by her gadabout mother. Rumors swirled throughout New York society about Gloria Morgan Vanderbilt's lifestyle. So Gertrude decided to sue for custody of little Gloria and the scandalous trial for custody of the little girl dominated the newspapers for weeks. In the end, Gertrude won.
"Auntie Gert", as Gloria called her, contributed to American art not only by the museum that bears her name, but by her own work. After a long battle with bacterial endocarditis (an infection of the lining of the heart) she died in 1942. Unlike her Vanderbilt brothers, father, and grandfathers, she is not buried in the Moravian Cemetery, New Dorp, Staten Island, but in Woodlawn Cemetery, The Bronx, New York, next to her husband Harry Payne Whitney.
Bibilography for the Vanderbilt family series:
"Fortune's Children" Arthur T. Vanderbilt, 1989
The New Netherlands Project, www.nnp.org
Wikipedia, www.wiki.org
Room Glo created p Jigsaw Puzzle*Last year Gloria Vanderbilt paid an homage to her childhood with Aunt Gertrude by recreating her childhood bedroom. Quitty did a wonderful post about it earlier this year. This week's puzzle is taken from a picture in that post. If you're interested in reading more follow the link.
Also last year New York Magazine featured Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney's carriage house in a look at historic homes. Here's the link to that article too.
All Things Anderson is a blog dedicated to CNN's AC360 and its host Anderson Cooper.
5 comments:
Viewer in Virgina, thanks for your write ups of the Vanderbilt's. I enjoyed reading them. Its sad that Gloria was involved in that custody battle and that it was so public as well.
Anderson's family has an interesting history and its nice to read and learn about it.
I really enjoyed the history lessons. AC comes from very interesting family and he is certaining on his way to carving his own niche in that legacy. Moreover, I admire the zest in which he has chosen to do this. It must be difficult when you have this type of family background to emerge from the layers of successes and scandals. Consequently, it is even more difficult to establish your own sense of who you are and what you want to become.
Again, AC is to be commend for his work ethic and his determination to be his own person.
It is easy to see where Gloria got her artistic ability...from her beloved Aunt Gertrude. Today this would hardly be a scandal, a mere dot on the radar screen or is it the PC monitor.
It is hard to know if AC feels any connection at all with those Vanderbilts of yesteryear, except perhaps his mother, and as he has said many times, she has lived "may lives."
A big thanks to the Viewer from Virginia.
Also offering my thanks to Viewer in Virginia for the Vanderbilt history series They were certainly movers and shakers of their day.
Nice photo for the puzzle. I'm assuming that's Gloria's first son Stan on her left. I saw a photo of him from about a decade ago and he looked like a hip California surfer dude, thin with long shaggy hair. What a difference a few years makes.
Wonder if Anderson ever tried anything artistic?
@Jaanza, The man in the photo with Anderson and Gloria is Matthew Patrick Smyth. He was the designer who helped recreate Gloria's childhood room as she remembered it.
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