1. Emily Hoffman returned to the United States shortly before the outbreak of World War I An avid big-game hunter, she went on hunting expeditions in the Western United States and in Eastern Africa.
21 Facts About Emily Hoffman
1. 2.
Emily Hoffman was the mother of Vogue editor-in-chief Diana Vreeland and of Alexandra, Lady Kinloch.
3.
Emily Key Hoffman was born in 1876 to the lawyer George H Hoffmann and his wife, Mary Martin Ellis.
4.
On her mother's side, Emily Hoffman was a relative of the Washington family, descending from one of George Washington's brothers.
5.
Emily Hoffman's maternal grandfather, John Washington Ellis, made a fortune as a partner of a wholesale dry goods firm in Cincinnati, and was a co-founder of the First National Bank of Cincinnati.
6.
Emily Hoffman's family was recognized as part of Caroline Schermerhorn Astor's The Four Hundred, an elite group of New York high society during the Gilded Age.
7.
Emily Hoffman grew up in wealth and privilege at her family's home on West Fiftieth Street in Manhattan, just off of Fifth Avenue, and at their summer "cottage", called Stone Acre, on Bellevue Avenue in Newport, Rhode Island, which was built by her grandfather in 1882.
8.
Emily Hoffman's father died in 1885, after which she was reared by her widowed mother.
9.
In 1895 newspaper columnists wrote that Emily Hoffman was "the most beautiful young lady on the floor" at the Newport ball given by Alva Vanderbilt for Charles Spencer-Churchill, 9th Duke of Marlborough.
10.
Emily Hoffman was presented as a debutante to New York society in 1896 and was regarded as one of the "most beautiful Belles of Newport" after her formal debut.
11.
Emily Hoffman was a great success of the social season, appearing on the guests lists of dinner parties and dances, including Mrs Astor's annual ball and a Bailey's Beach party hosted by Marion Graves Anthon Fish.
12.
Swiss artist Adolfo Muller-Ury painted a portrait of Emily Hoffman posed as the Madonna, which led to her being described as the "Madonna of the 400".
13.
Emily Hoffman was a sportswoman and enjoyed hunting, riding, and tennis.
14.
Emily Hoffman was celebrated as high society's "exponent of Spanish dances" and was dubbed "the Carmencita of New York society" by the press.
15.
Emily Hoffman was known for her performances of the cachucha, especially at a charity event at the Waldorf-Astoria in January 1900 that earned her a standing ovation, fan-mail, and glowing reviews in New York newspapers.
16.
In November 1900 Emily Hoffman sailed to the Mediterranean aboard Eugene Higgins' yacht Varuna.
17.
In September 1901, six months after the Varuna docked in Nice, Emily Hoffman became engaged to Frederick Young Dalziel, a Scottish stockbroker.
18.
On September 28,1901, Emily Hoffman married Dalziel at St Peter's Church, Eaton Square in London.
19.
Emily Hoffman was an accomplished big game hunter, going on trips to the American frontier to hunt grizzly bears and to Africa to hunt exotic animals.
20.
In 1921, Emily Hoffman returned to the United States from East Africa with an elephant, two rhinoceros, seven lions, three hippopotamuses among her hunting trophies.
21.
Emily Hoffman was saved when a friend, Sir Charles Ross, 9th Baronet, shot and killed the animal.