Muriel Vanderbilt and Frederic C. Church | wedding list, 1925

Muriel Vanderbilt

Autograph manuscript Wedding Gift List on the occasion of her marriage to Frederic Cameron Church, 25 July 1925

listing 354 guests and their gifts from a sapphire and diamond Cartier bracelet from Harold Vanderbilt to table glasses from Ralph Pulitzer, the guest list including Vanderbilts, Whitneys, Rockefellers and other wealthy families; the volume then reused to record an additional 136 gifts on the occasion of her second wedding, to Henry Delafield Phelps, 11 September 1931, with a pencil note at the end noting that she had received "218 less than before", c.80 pages, oblong 4to, red morocco gilt with gilt stamp label ("Edward I Farmer | New York")

Muriel Vanderbilt (1900-1972) was a socialite heiress and her wedding list provides a glimpse into the opulent life of the rich in the "Roaring Twenties". Her reuse of the album for her second wedding is a surprising piece of economy, and her careful calculation of the decline in the number of gifts she had received perhaps gives an indication of her character. Sadly the volume was nearly full in 1931 so there was no space for her to record the gifts she received at her third wedding in 1944.