Art, Ambition and Scandal in Gilded Age New York

New York’s Gilded Age was a time of towering ambition, lavish artistry and unbelievable wealth. From the first offices of McKim, Mead & White at 57 Broadway, architect Stanford White and his partners designed the Beaux-Arts buildings and monuments that still define the city’s skyline. Creative collaboration thrived during this period, with sculptors like Augustus Saint-Gaudens adorning these new structures with statues honoring the titans of industry who were their patrons. Beneath this picture-perfect “gilded” exterior, however, lay a world of intrigue, gossip and scandal.

On September 16, join the Downtown Alliance for a fireside chat featuring acclaimed author Henry Wiencek and historian Esther Crain, in conversation about Wiencek’s new book, “Stan & Gus: Art, Ardor and the Friendship That Built the Gilded Age.” The conversation will be moderated by journalist Rachel Syme of The New Yorker.

“Stan & Gus” unpacks the intense and complicated relationship between architect Stanford White and sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens, two icons of American art and design whose intertwined lives reveal the ambitions and anxieties of the Gilded Age. Through his vivid narrative, Wiencek explores how art, architecture and personal power converged in an era marked by opulence, invention and social upheaval.

Joining Wiencek is Esther Crain, expert chronicler of New York’s Gilded Age and author of “The Gilded Age in New York, 1870–1910.” Crain is also the founder of the beloved Ephemeral New York blog, which documents the overlooked corners and forgotten histories of the city. She will help place White and Saint-Gaudens in the broader context of an era defined by extreme wealth and deep inequality, when tycoons shaped skylines and cultural norms and when the city’s physical landscape reflected the ambitions of a newly industrialized nation.

The conversation, guided by Syme– an acclaimed journalist and critic known for her sharp cultural commentary and essays on art, literature, and society– will go beyond biographical detail to explore how the Gilded Age’s legacy still surrounds us: in the architecture we walk past every day, in the civic monuments we often overlook and in the economic and cultural structures that continue to define New York life.

The discussion will be followed by a reception and light refreshments. Onsite book sales at the Down Town Association will be facilitated by McNally Jackson.

Henry Wiencek is a prizewinning historian and writer and the author of several books, including “The Hairstons: An American Family in Black and White,” which won the National Book Critics Circle Award, and, most recently, “Master of the Mountain: Thomas Jefferson and His Slaves.” He lives in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Esther Crain is an author, historian and native New Yorker. In 2008 she launched the website Ephemeral New York, where she writes and publishes stories every week that explores the city’s past. Her second book, “The Gilded Age in New York, 1870-1910,” has been featured in city publications and has made Esther a popular source for information on Gotham during the Gilded Age.

Esther speaks regularly on topics relating to New York City history, and she conducts walking tours that explore Riverside Drive, Ladies Mile, the Bowery, Gilded Age Fifth Avenue and many more of New York’s hidden pockets and little-known corners.

Rachel Syme is a New York-based writer, reporter and cultural critic. She is a Staff Writer at The New Yorker, where she has been a contributor since 2012. Her cultural criticism and reported features focus primarily on the intersections of women's lives, artistic production, history, and fame, and have also appeared in the New York Times Magazine, Vogue, GQ, Elle, The New Republic, and Vanity Fair.

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