Alva Vanderbilt Belmont (1853–1933): Download the PDF
Multi-millionaire Alva Vanderbilt Belmont devoted her later years, and generous funding, to the cause of women’s suffrage.
- Library of Congress
High Society
Born in Mobile, Alabama Alva Eskine Smith became one of the world’s wealthiest women upon marriage to William Kissam Vanderbilt. Socially ambitious as a young woman, she devoted her energy to raising the “new money” Vanderbilt family to prominence in New York Society
Alva in costume. Upon opening a new Fifth Avenue mansion Alva Vanderbilt reportedly spent $3 million in 1883 dollars on a costume ball for 1,000 guests.
- PSNC Archives and Special Collections
Marble House in Newport, Rhode Island (built at a cost of $11 million dollars) was a birthday gift from her first husband, William K. Vanderbilt. In later years she hosted suffragist events there, including a “Conference of Great Women” in 1914 and offered public tours to raise money for the suffrage cause.
- Daderot
Scandalous
In 1895 Alva scandalized society by divorcing William Kissam Vanderbilt on the grounds of adultery. Even if the accusation was true, divorce was not acceptable in New York’s high society. Later she married Oliver H. P. Belmont, a wealthy summer neighbor in Newport, Rhode Island. After his death she turned to the cause of women’s suffrage.
- Library of Congress
A bust of Alice Paul appears in the lobby of the Belmont Paul house.
- National Park Service
Class Conscious
Perhaps surprisingly, she worked with Harriet Stanton Blatch, daughter of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, to recruit working class women to the suffrage cause and advocated a boycott of nonunion dress manufacturers. Although supporting southern women’s suffragist organizations that excluded black women, she also encouraged black women leaders in the New York area to participate in suffragist activities.
Suffragist Benefactor
Alva Belmont funded several suffragist organizations. She supported Anna Howard Shaw as President of the National American Woman Suffrage Association and financed a national headquarters in New York City. Later, influenced by the more aggressive tactics of Emmeline Pankhurst in England, she supported Alice Paul and the more radical National Woman’s Party including their campaign of picketing the White House. She served as President of the National Woman’s Party after passage of the 19th Amendment when the organization continued advocacy on issues such as an Equal Rights Amendment.
At her funeral in 1933 Alva Belmont had specified that all pall-bearers be women and that a banner bearing Susan B. Anthony’s quotation “Failure is Impossible” be draped on her casket.
- Library of Congress
A bust of Alice Paul appears in the lobby of the Belmont Paul house.
- National Park Service
Class Conscious
Perhaps surprisingly, she worked with Harriet Stanton Blatch, daughter of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, to recruit working class women to the suffrage cause and advocated a boycott of nonunion dress manufacturers. Although supporting southern women’s suffragist organizations that excluded black women, she also encouraged black women leaders in the New York area to participate in suffragist activities