1. Samuel Ward McAllister was a popular arbiter of social taste in the Gilded Age of America, widely accepted as the authority to which families could be classified as the cream of New York society.
14 Facts About Ward McAllister
1. 2.
Ward McAllister's listings were questioned by those excluded from them, and his self-aggrandizement motivation was noted.
3.
Ward McAllister was an early summer colonist of Newport, Rhode Island, and was largely responsible for turning the town into a Mecca for the pleasure-seeking, status-conscious rich of the Gilded Age.
4.
Ward McAllister's downfall came when he published a book of memoirs entitled Society as I Have Found It in 1890.
5.
Ward McAllister coined the phrase "The Four Hundred" by declaring that there were "only 400 people in fashionable New York Society".
6.
On February 16,1892, Ward McAllister named the official list of The Four Hundred in The New York Times.
7.
In 1872, Ward McAllister founded the "Society of Patriarchs" which was a group of 25 gentlemen from New York Society.
8.
On March 15,1853, Ward McAllister married a Georgia-born heiress who was then living in Madison, New Jersey, Sarah Taintor Gibbons, the daughter of William Gibbons and Abigail Louisa Gibbons.
9.
Ward McAllister's grandfather was politician, lawyer, and steamboat owner Thomas Gibbons.
10.
Ward McAllister's father built the Gibbons Mansion in Madison, New Jersey, which her brother sold to Daniel Drew after their father's death, and which Drew donated to found Drew Theological Seminary.
11.
Ward McAllister died while dining alone, and in social disgrace for his writings, at New York's Union Club, in January 1895.
12.
Ward McAllister's funeral, held on February 5,1895, was well attended by many society figures of the day, including Chauncey Depew and Cornelius Vanderbilt II.
13.
Ward McAllister is interred at Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York.
14.
Ward McAllister is portrayed by Nathan Lane in the American television series The Gilded Age.