ABSTRACT
In 1895, Consuelo Vanderbilt was eighteen and had grown up in one of the nation's wealthiest families. Press coverage of the marriage of Consuelo Vanderbilt and the Duke of Marlborough in 1895 is discussed in the two biographies that have been written about Consuelo Vanderbilt and in her memoir in 1954. The press coverage of Consuelo and the Duke becomes more interesting and revealing when broken into two major categories: New York City and the rest of the nation. Coverage of Consuelo and the Duke in the rest of the nation's newspapers is equally fascinating. The crowds that came out to witness the comings and goings of American economic royalty and the Duke were evidence of the interest, fed in turn by coverage. The Duke of Marlborough was a celebrity by accident of birth. When born into British nobility in Victorian times, status was confirmed on arrival.
